Journal article
Neuromodulation of cursing in American English: A combined tDCS and pupillometry study
Brain and language, v 206, 104791
Jul 2020
PMID: 32339951
Abstract
• Uncontrolled cursing is common in many neurological disorders. Cursing is linked to cerebral lateralization.
• We examined neuromodulatory effects of tDCS to left vs. right prefrontal cortex on cursing behaviors.
• Anodal stimulation to right prefrontal cortex augmented physiological responsivity to cursing.
• Cathodal stimulation to right prefrontal cortex dampened the physiological response to cursing.
• tDCS may hold promise as a treatment adjuvant for uncontrolled cursing.
Many neurological disorders are associated with excessive and/or uncontrolled cursing. The right prefrontal cortex has long been implicated in a diverse range of cognitive processes that underlie the propensity for cursing, including non-propositional language representation, emotion regulation, theory of mind, and affective arousal. Neurogenic cursing often poses significant negative social consequences, and there is no known behavioral intervention for this communicative disorder. We examined whether right vs. left lateralized prefrontal neurostimulation via tDCS could modulate taboo word production in neurotypical adults. We employed a pre/post design with a bilateral frontal electrode montage. Half the participants received left anodal and right cathodal stimulation; the remainder received the opposite polarity stimulation at the same anatomical loci. We employed physiological (pupillometry) and behavioral (reaction time) dependent measures as participants read aloud taboo and non-taboo words. Pupillary responses demonstrated a crossover reaction, suggestive of modulation of phasic arousal during cursing. Participants in the right anodal condition showed elevated pupil responses for taboo words post stimulation. In contrast, participants in the right cathodal condition showed relative dampening of pupil responses for taboo words post stimulation. We observed no effects of stimulation on response times. We interpret these findings as supporting modulation of right hemisphere affective arousal that disproportionately impacts taboo word processing. We discuss alternate accounts of the data and future applications to neurological disorders.
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Details
- Title
- Neuromodulation of cursing in American English: A combined tDCS and pupillometry study
- Creators
- Jamie Reilly - Temple UniversityBonnie Zuckerman - Temple UniversityAlexandra Kelly - Drexel University, Psychological and Brain Sciences (Psychology)Maurice Flurie - Temple UniversitySagar Rao - Swarthmore College
- Publication Details
- Brain and language, v 206, 104791
- Publisher
- Elsevier Inc
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences (Psychology)
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000537623500003
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85083662154
- Other Identifier
- 991021860772404721
InCites Highlights
Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:
- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Audiology & Speech-language Pathology
- Linguistics
- Neurosciences
- Psychology, Experimental