The causal neuromodulation mechanisms of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex on the amygdala

Abstract The left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) is a key region involved in emotion regulation and an effective target for repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) treatment depression. Evidence shows that the dlPFC connects with amygdala, emotional responses processing, during regulation. Yet, our understanding of causal regulatory role on amygdala minimal. We performed 3 multimodal neuroimaging experiments. In Experiment 1 concurrent TMS/fMRI, we stimulated 11 cortical regions 82 healthy participants single-pulse interleaved TMS scanner simultaneously measured amygdala. identified main effect sites (F=2.74, p=0.002). to posterior induced strongest inhibitory 2 anterior 21 controls (HC) 20 patients major depression disorder (MDD). significant interaction between groups (F=7.5, p=0.007). was perturbed patients, indicating altered dlPFC-amygdala circuit Our testified this assumption. First, dlPFC-amygala resting state functional connectivity (RSFC) differed MDD HC before (left amygdala: t(44) = 4.91, p 1.32e-5; right 3.07, 0.0036). Moreover, active but not sham rTMS drove RSFC pattern similar seen HC, t(41) 0.83, 0.41; −0.23, 0.82). findings together demonstrated modulation may have improved depression, providing important clinical implications optimization. Research Category Technology Methods Basic Research: 10. Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) Keywords: dlPFC, TMS,