SynthesisSocial cognitive and affective neuroscience2020
Does non-invasive brain stimulation modulate emotional stress reactivity?
Synthesis in Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Interventions for suicidal and self-injurious related behaviors in adolescents with psychiatric disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Translational psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Enhancing reappraisal of negative emotional memories with transcranial direct current stimulation.Scientific reports · 2021Trial
- Effects of Alpha Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation on Stress Reactivity and Decision Making: A Randomized Sham-Controlled Trial.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Article
- Mechanistic insights into combined prefrontal tDCS and vagal nerve stimulation for stress regulation.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Review
- Adjunctive Deep Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (dTMS) for Managing Emotional Dysregulation in Children and Adolescents with Externalizing Behavior Disorders: An Open-label Trial.Indian journal of psychological medicine · 2025Article
- Lateral frontopolar theta-band activity supports flexible switching between emotion regulation strategies.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Non-Pharmacological Mitigation of Acute Mental Stress-Induced Sympathetic Arousal: Comparison Between Median Nerve Stimulation and Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Neuromodulation of Fear and Anxiety Circuits.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2025Review
- Leveraging transcranial ultrasound stimulation to enhance self-regulation in emotion and sleep.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Article
- Editorial: Noninvasive brain stimulation: a promising approach to study and improve emotion regulation.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2025Article
- Boosting Resilience Attentional Bias in Previously Bullied University Students with Low Post-Traumatic Growth: A Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Study.Brain sciences · 2024Article
- Transcranial Focused Ultrasound Targeting the Amygdala May Increase Psychophysiological and Subjective Negative Emotional Reactivity in Healthy Older Adults.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2024Article
- Mental Stress and Cognitive Deficits Management.Brain sciences · 2024Article
- Cerebellar non-invasive stimulation of social and emotional mentalizing: A meta-analysis.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2024Article
- Effects of non-invasive brain stimulation on emotion regulation in patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: a systematic review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Review
- Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation for the Modulation of Aggressive Behavior-A Systematic Review of Randomized Sham-Controlled Studies.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Article
- The Effect of Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation on the Downregulation of Negative Emotions: A Meta-Analysis.Brain sciences · 2022Review
- Is there a neuroscience-based, mechanistic rationale for transcranial direct current stimulation as an adjunct treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder?Behavioral neuroscience · 2021Review
- Prefrontal tDCS attenuates counterfactual thinking in female individuals prone to self-critical rumination.Scientific reports · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Excessive emotional responses to stressful events can detrimentally affect psychological functioning and mental health. Recent studies have provided evidence that non-invasive brain stimulation (NBS) targeting the prefrontal cortex (PFC) can affect the regulation of stress-related emotional responses. However, the reliability and effect sizes have not been systematically analyzed. In the present study, we reviewed and meta-analyzed the effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic (rTMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the PFC on acute emotional stress reactivity in healthy individuals. Forty sham-controlled single-session rTMS and tDCS studies were included. Separate random effects models were performed to estimate the mean effect sizes of emotional reactivity. Twelve rTMS studies together showed no evidence that rTMS over the PFC influenced emotional reactivity. Twenty-six anodal tDCS studies yielded a weak beneficial effect on stress-related emotional reactivity (Hedges' g = -0.16, CI95% = [-0.33, 0.00]). These findings suggest that a single session of NBS is insufficient to induce reliable, clinically significant effects but also provide preliminary evidence that specific NBS methods can affect emotional reactivity. This may motivate further research into augmenting the efficacy of NBS protocols on stress-related processes.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.