Modulating the Social and Affective Brain with Transcranial Stimulation Techniques

Abstract

Transcranial brain stimulation (TBS) is a term that denotes different noninvasive techniques which aim to modulate brain cortical activity through an external source, usually an electric or magnetic one. Currently, there are several techniques categorized as TBS. However, two are more used for scientific research, the transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and the transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), which stimulate brain areas with a high-intensity magnetic field or a weak electric current on the scalp, respectively. They represent an enormous contribution to behavioral, cognitive, and social neuroscience since they reveal how delimited brain cortical areas contribute to some behavior or cognition. They have also been proposed as a feasible tool in the clinical setting since they can modulate abnormal cognition or behavior due to brain activity modulation. This chapter will present the standard methods of transcranial stimulation, their contributions to social and affective neuroscience through a few main topics, and the studies that adopted those techniques, also summing their findings.