Underactivity and weak matter connections in the ventromedial prefrontal cortical and amygdalar regions have been studied in psychopathic subjects. How are the chances that transcranial magnetic and deep brain stimulations could restore the functional levels of these areas to improve affective learning and response in psychopathic individuals?
Yes, but research using these technologies is very scarce. E.g., see Hoppenbrouwers, S. S., De Jesus, D. R., Sun, Y., Stirpe, T., Hofman, D., McMaster, J., ... & Schutter, D. J. (2014). Abnormal interhemispheric connectivity in male psychopathic offenders. Journal of psychiatry & neuroscience: JPN, 39(1), 22.
Well regarding transcranial magnetic stimulation .. the coil structure and orientation to the head of the patient matters ..
for example a figure of eight butterfly coil that is having a slight curvature to fit to the skull vault is having a higher penetration power than a flat coil .. which in general is not more than 3 to 5 cm.
And this penetration power what makes TMS suitable in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex targets like resistant depression (FDA approved) and OCD ..
Yet a question to yours .. ventromedial prefrontal cortex and amygdala are deep and not approachable through direct stimulation so does u mean to target them through their connections to other more sub-vault brain centers like what we do for example in other lesions like targeting M1 to reach more deeper lesions ?
Presumably so...If vmPFC is not targetable, perhaps dlPFC could be a close alternative.
Well Rowena .. u may try to target the ventromedial prefrontal cortex through applying the coil on FPz or Fp1 .. some studies did so regarding assessing the cueing for substance abuse after theta burst to these targets .. so it appears to be possible to approach these deeper areas .. although FPz will be some how annoying to the patient secondary to local contractions of frontalis and orbicularis muscles .. so you may try DCS rather than TMS
I see, thanks very much Tamer. I don't have much experience in this but am curious about its potential impact - how lasting would applying DCS affect the temporal and spatial summations of EPSPs around network connections in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, based on studies already performed?
Well to my knowledge studies done using DCS are scant and are mainly diagnostic or performing single session then analyzing results through other modalities like fMRI and so on .. so reaching a Frank answer regarding your question would be difficult
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