Highlights
- •Cathodal tDCS may reduce fear and disrupt the fear memory more than anodal tDCS.
- •Phase of fear memory is important factor in determining polarity of tDCS electrodes.
- •The brain region is important factor in determining polarity of tDCS electrodes.
- •The assessed fear parameters are important to show the effect of the tDCS intervention.
Abstract
Intensifying fear and fear of pain may lead to some diseases such as panic disorder,
phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety disorders, depression, etc.
A number of studies indicated positive effect of transcranial direct current stimulation
(tDCS) on controlling fear and some studies did not observe any effect or even negative
effect on decreasing fear. Due to lack of consensus in the findings of research, we
aimed to systematically review studies, which investigated the effect of tDCS on fear.
A literature search was conducted using the databases of PubMed, Science Direct, OVID,
CINAHL, PEDro, Cochrane, Scopus and MEDLINE. Fear, fear memory, fear of pain, anxiety,
post-traumatic stress disorder, electrical brain stimulation were applied as keywords.
The valid assessment scale was used to evaluate the methodological quality of the
included studies. The results of this systematic review revealed that the cathodal
tDCS (c-tDCS) on the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) as compared to anodal
tDCS (a-tDCS) could significantly reduce fear and modulate the fear memory. In addition,
the findings of this study showed that the c-tDCS has positive effect on behavioural
parameters of fear, while it cannot change biochemical parameters of fear during limited
sessions of intervention. Application of c-tDCS on the left DLPFC could significantly
reduce fear and modulate the fear memory.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 16, 2019
Accepted:
January 4,
2019
Received:
December 6,
2018
Identification
Copyright
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
