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Review
. 2024 Oct 1:362:263-286.
doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2024.06.060. Epub 2024 Jun 21.

The effect of transcranial direct current and magnetic stimulation on fear extinction and return of fear: A meta-analysis and systematic review

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Free article
Review

The effect of transcranial direct current and magnetic stimulation on fear extinction and return of fear: A meta-analysis and systematic review

Letian Lei et al. J Affect Disord. .
Free article

Abstract

Background: We conducted a meta-analysis and qualitative review on the randomized controlled trials investigating the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation and transcranial magnetic stimulation on fear extinction and the return of fear in non-primate animals and humans.

Methods: The meta-analysis was conducted by searching PubMed, Web of science, PsycINFO, and Cochrane Library and extracting fear response in the active and sham groups in the randomized controlled trials. The pooled effect size was quantified by Hedges' g using a three-level meta-analytic model in R.

Results: We identified 18 articles on the tDCS effect and 5 articles on the TMS effect, with 466 animal subjects and 621 human subjects. Our findings show that tDCS of the prefrontal cortex significantly inhibit fear retrieval in animal models (Hedges' g = -0.50). In human studies, TMS targeting the dorsolateral/ventromedial prefrontal cortex has an inhibiting effect on the return of fear (Hedges' g = -0.24).

Limitations: The limited number of studies and the heterogeneous designs of the selected studies made cross-study and cross-species comparison difficult.

Conclusions: Our findings shed light on the optimal non-invasive brain stimulation protocols for targeting the neural circuitry of threat extinction in humans.

Keywords: Fear conditioning; Fear extinction; Fear retention; Return of fear; Transcranial direct current stimulation; Transcranial magnetic stimulation.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest None.

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