Neural correlates of trait resiliency: Evidence from electrical stimulation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dLPFC) and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC)

- Trait resiliency has some cognitive-emotional aspects that have neural basis.
- Modulation of cortical activity might benefit trait resiliency.
- Anodal tDCS over the ldLPFC led to an increase in level of trait resiliency.
- Anodal tDCS of the ldLPFC and cathodal one of the right OFC improved trait resiliency.
- The prefrontal regions especially the dLPFC and the OFC benefit trait resiliency.

The topic of trait resiliency has recently been studied in many fields including personality psychology, clinical psychology and health sciences. Neuroimaging studies show some regions in the prefrontal cortex that are involved in resilience and coping behaviour. This study was primarily aimed to examine the effectiveness of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on level of trait resiliency of participants. Eighty students were randomly assigned into four groups. Each group completed the Conner-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) once before brain stimulation and once 5 min after receiving electrical brain stimulation for 15 min with 1 mA current intensity. Each group underwent a specific tDCS montage and results showed that anodal tDCS over the left dLPFC concurrently with cathode tDCS over the right dLPFC (Experiment 1) as well as anodal stimulation of the left dLPFC and cathodal stimulation of the right OFC (Experiment 2) led to an increase in the level of trait resiliency of participants. Results also showed a larger effect size for experiment 2. The findings of the present study implicate the involvement of the PFC regions in trait resiliency, especially in term of interaction of the dLPFC and the OFC regions in trait resiliency suggesting neural correlates underlying trait resiliency.