Understanding the functional relevance of brain networks supporting either emotion sharing or cognitive understanding of others using TMS.
ID
Source
Brief title
Condition
- Other condition
Synonym
Health condition
The experiment is conducted on healthy participants. In the proposed project we test behaviour during social cognition (e.g., empathic accuracy)
Research involving
Sponsors and support
Intervention
Outcome measures
Primary outcome
Primary outcome of the study will be participant performance in our task.
(Behavioural Outcome)
Secondary outcome
N.A.
Background summary
We believe that cognitive and emotional empathy represent two paths to
understanding others by either sharing their feelings or trying to build a
propositional knowledge about them (Zaki et al., 2012b; Spunt and Lieberman,
2013; Zaki, 2014). They have a (at least partially) different neural substrate.
Emotional empathy seems to be rooted in resonant activations coupling
observation and first-hand emotional experience. Whereas cognitive empathy is
more linked to activity within the so-called mentalizing network. Using TMS, we
want to selectively modulate target regions within the two networks supporting
these processes. At the same time, we will provide participants with stimuli in
which we modulate the emotional content and the cognitive description of the
same emotional content. We will ask participant to rate the emotional content
of the shown videos and calculate their accuracy.
We expect the two networks to be particularly sensitive to specific information
in social interaction (emotional content for the former and contextual
cognitive information for the latter). We thus expect TMS to have a
differential and specific effect on accuracy based on the specific target.
Furthermore, we expect a differential effect in condition in which the
emotional content and the cognitive description are incongruents.
Study objective
Understanding the functional relevance of brain networks supporting either
emotion sharing or cognitive understanding of others using TMS.
Study design
Participants will be tested in a single session. Two groups of participants
will be recruited, in Group 1 active TMS will be applied over the anterior
cingulate cortex (aCC) and in Group 2 active TMS will be applied over the
temporo-parietal junction (TPJ).
They will be asked to watch videos involving another individual experiencing
annoying stimulations to the hand of different intensities while they rate how
much pain that person is feeling. Our paradigm stimuli include videos in which
an actress is experiencing painful stimulation of different intensities. In
half of the videos the actress is freely showing her facial expressions (*show
pain*) in the other half the actress is suppressing (*suppress pain*) her
facial expressions. Participants will be provided a description about which
type of video they are watching (label: show, suppress)
A congruency manipulation will be added, creating conditions in which the label
corresponds to the content of the video (congruent conditions, i.e. *show pain*/
show pain instruction) and situations in which the content of the video does
not correspond to the label (incongruent conditions, i.e. *suppress pain*/show
pain instruction).
Participants will receive repetitive TMS (6Hz stimulation, total of 12
pulses/clip) while watching the clips. They will watch each clip twice, once
while receiving active rTMS and once in a placebo condition without rTMS (sham
condition).
We will compare the participants* ratings of pain experienced by the actress to
the auto-ratings reported by the same actress about her first-hand experience
with the stimulations (empathic accuracy, EA), as well as the ratings between
stimulation (real vs. sham), and congruency (congruent vs incongruent)
conditions. This will allow us to understand the contribution of the brain
regions associated to affective and cognitive empathy whenever the content
(affective component) and context within an empathy-eliciting situation are not
aligned.
Study burden and risks
No burden is associated with our study. Risks are minimized by the screening
procedure. The main one being mild headache during stimulation and in the
minutes right after.
Meibergdreef 17
Amsterdam 1105 AZ
NL
Meibergdreef 17
Amsterdam 1105 AZ
NL
Listed location countries
Age
Inclusion criteria
Healthy participants, age 18-35
Exclusion criteria
Participants without a good level of proficiency in English will be excluded
from the study.
Participants will be screened using a questionnaire for any contraindication to
the use of neuromodulation tools (in this case Transcranial Magnetic
Stimulation - TMS). Main criterium is history of epilepsy or intense and
recurring headache.EXAMPLE OF SAFETY SCREENING* Have you ever:
o Had an adverse reaction to TMS?
o Had a seizure?
o Had an EEG?
o Had a stroke?
o Had a head injury (include neurosurgery)?
* Do you have any metal in your head (outside of the mouth,) such as shrapnel,
surgical clips, or fragments from welding or metalwork? (Metal can be moved or
heated by TMS)
* Do you have any implanted devices such as cardiac pacemakers, medical pumps,
or intracardiac lines? (TMS may interfere with electronics and those with heart
conditions are at greater risk in event of seizure)
* Do you suffer from frequent or severe headaches?
* Have you ever had any other brain-related condition?
* Have you ever had any illness that caused brain injury?
* Are you taking any medications? (e.g. Tricyclic anti-depressants,
neuroleptic agents, and other drugs that lower the seizure threshold)
* If you are a woman of childbearing age, are you sexually active, and if so,
are you not using a reliable method of birth control?
* Does anyone in your family have epilepsy?
* Do you need further explanation of TMS and its associated risks?
Design
Recruitment
Medical products/devices used
Followed up by the following (possibly more current) registration
No registrations found.
Other (possibly less up-to-date) registrations in this register
No registrations found.
In other registers
| Register | ID |
|---|---|
| CCMO | NL68819.018.19 |