The Right Lateral Frontal Cortex Processes Features of Emotional Faces as a Function of Their Likelihood of Occurrence
André Forster, Johannes Hewig, John JB Allen, Johannes Rodrigues, Philipp Ziebell, Joseph Sanguinetti
2021 · 10.31234/osf.io/gr42f
Abstract
The lateral frontal Cortex serves an important integrative function for converging information from a number of neural networks. It thus provides context and direction to both stimulus processing and accompanying responses. Especially in emotion related processing, the right hemisphere has often been described to serve a special role including a special sensitivity to stochastic learning and model building. In this study, the right inferior frontal gyrus (riFG) of 41 healthy participants was targeted via ultrasound neuromodulation to shed light on the involvement of this area in the representation of probabilistic context information and the processing of currently presented emotional faces. Analyses reveal that the riFG does not directly contribute to processing of currently depicted emotional stimuli but provides for information about the estimated likelihood of occurrence of stimulus features.
Abstract via europepmc.
Exposures
Exposure 1: litFUS to right IFG at F8
Target: inferior frontal gyrus — “right inferior frontal gyrus (riFG)”
Device: other named manufacturer · Thync ✓
| Waveform | pulsed | |
|---|---|---|
| Fundamental frequency (kHz) | 500 | ✓✓✓ |
| Pulse duration (ms) | not reportedimplied by duty cycle ÷ PRF: 0.125 ms (not stated by the paper) | ⚑ |
| Pulse repetition frequency (Hz) | 40 | ✓✓✓ |
| Duty cycle (%) | 0.5 | ✓✓✓ |
| Sonication duration (s) | 120 | ✓✓✓ |
| Free-field pressure (kPa) | not reported | |
|---|---|---|
| Free-field Isppa (W/cm²) | not reported | |
| Free-field Ispta (W/cm²) | not reported | |
| In-situ estimate | not reported | |
| In-situ pressure (kPa) | not reported | |
| In-situ Isppa (W/cm²) | not reported | |
| In-situ Ispta (W/cm²) | not reported | |
| Ispta, domain unspecified (W/cm²) | 0.199 | ✓✓✓⚑ |
Single 120 s sonication at the F8 position before the EEG task, once per session (litFUS in one session, sham in the other, seven days apart); no intervals or trains described.
Flags from extraction
exposures[0].unspecified_domain.ispta_w_cm2— Ispta of 199 mW/cm2 given without stating domain; converted to 0.199 W/cm2.exposures[0].timing.pulse_duration_ms— Pulse duration not stated; duty cycle and PRF given only.sham_type— Sham: transducer pointed away from head, but the paper says ultrasound was emitted either way; classified as aimed away.exposures[0].device.family— Maker named only as the 'manufactured device (Thync)'; transducer maker not separately stated.n_subjects— Abstract says 41 participants; mixed models analysed 37 individuals.