Mariam Hosseinzadeh

Mashhad university of Medical Sciences, Germany

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) improves emotion regulation in children with attention?deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

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Biography

Mariam Hosseinzadeh is a psychiatrist and a subspecialist in child and adolescent psychiatry. After completing her general medical education and graduating from Mashhad university of Medical Sciences, I pursued a four-year psychiatry training program at Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences. Subsequently, I undertook a one-year subspecialty program in child and adolescent psychiatry at the same university. Currently, she reside in Germany and is preparing for her exams required to continue my professional career in this country.

Abstract

Children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) typically exhibit difficulties in emotion regulation. It has been shown that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) are crucially involved in these deficient processes. In this study, we aimed to explore the impact of electrical stimulation over the left dlPFC and right vmPFC on emotion regulation in children with ADHD. Twenty-four children with ADHD completed the Emotional Go/ No-Go and Emotional 1-Back tasks while undergoing transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in three separate sessions, each with a different electrode placement: anodal dlPFC (F3)/cathodal vmPFC (Fp2), anodal vmPFC (Fp2)/cathodal dlPFC (F3), and sham stimulation. During both real tDCS conditions, the accuracy of pre-potent inhibitory control and working memory performance improved, but not speed. This study provides evidence that the left dlPFC and the right vmPFC are involved in emotion regulation in ADHD.

Keywords 

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), Emotion regulation, Children with attentiondeficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)