'Forget me (not)?' - Remembering Forget-Items Versus Un-Cued Items in Directed Forgetting.

Humans need to be able to selectively control their memories. This capability is often investigated in directed forgetting (DF) paradigms. In item-method DF, individual items are presented and each is followed by either a forget- or remember-instruction.

Shaping memory accuracy by left prefrontal transcranial direct current stimulation.

Human memory is dynamic and flexible but is also susceptible to distortions arising from adaptive as well as pathological processes. Both accurate and false memory formation require executive control that is critically mediated by the left prefrontal cortex (PFC). Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) enables noninvasive modulation of cortical activity and associated behavior.

Treatment of major depression with bilateral theta burst stimulation: a randomized controlled pilot trial.

Background: Current efforts to improve clinical effectiveness and utility of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in the treatment of major depression (MD) include theta burst stimulation (TBS), a patterned form of rTMS. Here, we investigated the efficacy of bilateral TBS to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) in patients with MD in additon to ongoing medication and psychotherapy.

Methods: In this randomized-controlled trial, thirty-two patients with MD were treated for six weeks (thirty sessions) with either successively intermittent, activity enhancing TBS (iTBS) to the left and continuous, inhibiting TBS (cTBS) to the right dlPFC or with bilateral sham stimulation.

Directed forgetting in post-traumatic-stress-disorder: a study of refugee immigrants in Germany.

People with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) often suffer from memory disturbances. In particular, previous studies suggest that PTSD patients perform atypically on tests of directed forgetting, which may be mediated by an altered emotional appraisal of the presented material. Also, a special role of dissociative symptoms in traumatized individuals' memory performance has been suggested.

Effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on executive functions: influence of COMT Val/Met polymorphism.

Introduction: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a frequently used technique to investigate healthy and impaired neuronal functions. Its modulatory effect on executive functions is of particular interest for understanding the mechanisms underlying integration of cognition and behavior. The key role of prefrontal dopamine function for executive functions suggest that differences of the Val158Met polymorphism of the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene would interact with tDCS interventions in this domain.

Acute psycho-social stress does not disrupt item-method directed forgetting, emotional stimulus content does.

It has been shown that stress affects episodic memory in general, but knowledge about stress effects on memory control processes such as directed forgetting is sparse. Whereas in previous studies item-method directed forgetting was found to be altered in post-traumatic stress disorder patients and abolished for highly arousing negative pictorial stimuli in students, no study so far has investigated the effects of experimentally induced psycho-social stress on this task or examined the role of positive picture stimuli. In the present study, 41 participants performed an item-method directed forgetting experiment while being exposed either to a psychosocial laboratory stressor, the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), or a cognitively challenging but non-stressful control condition.