SynthesisFrontiers in human neuroscience2021
A Systematic Review on the Effect of Transcranial Direct Current and Magnetic Stimulation on Fear Memory and Extinction.
Synthesis in Frontiers in human neuroscience, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 63 citations in OpenAlex.
- Neuromodulation Treatments of Pathological Anxiety in Anxiety Disorders, Stressor-Related Disorders, and Major Depressive Disorder: A Dimensional Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Effectiveness of noninvasive brain stimulation in the treatment of anxiety disorders: a meta-analysis of sham or behaviour-controlled studies.Journal of psychiatry & neuroscience : JPNPooled it
- Cerebellar Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation in the Theta Band Prevents Recall of the Initial Fear Association After Extinction Training.Human brain mapping · 2026Trial
- Intermittent theta burst stimulation over the left prefrontal cortex: no additional effect for virtual reality exposure therapy in acrophobia-a randomized trial.Scientific reports · 2024Trial
- Frontopolar multifocal transcranial direct current stimulation reduces conditioned fear reactivity during extinction training: A pilot randomized controlled trial.Neurobiology of learning and memory · 2023Trial
- Article
- Current State of the Neuroscience of Fear Extinction and Its Relevance to Anxiety Disorders.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2025Review
- Neuromodulation of Fear and Anxiety Circuits.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2025Review
- Subregions in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex integrate threat and protective information to meta-represent safety.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- Adaptive Safety Coding in the Prefrontal Cortex.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Article
- Article
- PanicRoom: a virtual reality-based Pavlovian fear conditioning paradigm.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- The power of belief? Evidence of reduced fear extinction learning in Catholic God believers.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- The Role of Serotonin in Fear Learning and Memory: A Systematic Review of Human Studies.Brain sciences · 2023Review
- Evidence of Altered Fear Extinction Learning in Individuals with High Vaccine Hesitancy During Covid-19 Pandemic.Clinical neuropsychiatry · 2023Article
- Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation for the Modulation of Aggressive Behavior-A Systematic Review of Randomized Sham-Controlled Studies.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- A Quantum-Classical Model of Brain Dynamics.Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Neuropharmacological Modulation of N-methyl-D-aspartate, Noradrenaline and Endocannabinoid Receptors in Fear Extinction Learning: Synaptic Transmission and Plasticity.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Causally mapping human threat extinction relevant circuits with depolarizing brain stimulation methods.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Anxiety disorders are among the most prevalent mental disorders. Present treatments such as cognitive behavior therapy and pharmacological treatments show only moderate success, which emphasizes the importance for the development of new treatment protocols. Non-invasive brain stimulation methods such as repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) have been probed as therapeutic option for anxiety disorders in recent years. Mechanistic information about their mode of action, and most efficient protocols is however limited. Here the fear extinction model can serve as a model of exposure therapies for studying therapeutic mechanisms, and development of appropriate intervention protocols. We systematically reviewed 30 research articles that investigated the impact of rTMS and tDCS on fear memory and extinction in animal models and humans, in clinical and healthy populations. The results of these studies suggest that tDCS and rTMS can be efficient methods to modulate fear memory and extinction. Furthermore, excitability-enhancing stimulation applied over the vmPFC showed the strongest potential to enhance fear extinction. We further discuss factors that determine the efficacy of rTMS and tDCS in the context of the fear extinction model and provide future directions to optimize parameters and protocols of stimulation for research and treatment.
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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.