TMS study on the right prefrontal cortex in self-face recognition

ObjectiveTo investigate the role of right prefrontal cortex in self-other discrimination for understanding carefully the neural system of self-awareness.MethodsHere 1Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation(rTMS) was used to create a "virtual lesion" over the right dorsal-lateral Prefrontal cortex(rDLPFC) in 6 subjects to test whether this region is necessary for discriminating self faces from other faces.ResultsThe current results showed that 1 Hz rTMS to the right prefrontal cortex selectively disrupts performance on a self-other discrimination task(t=4.05, P 0.05). Reaction time has no significant difference before and after rTMS (TMS-lPFC:t=1.43, P>0.05; TMS-rPFC:t=1.80, P>0.05). ConclusionIt appears that activity in the right DLPFC is essential to the task,thus indicating that right DLPFC is involved in self-other faces discrimination. Key words: Face recognition; Prefrontal cortex; Transcranial magnetic stimulation