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 neurostimultion 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.

中文翻译：

---

美式英语中诅咒的神经调节：tDCS 和瞳孔测量法的结合研究

许多神经系统疾病与过度和/或不受控制的诅咒有关。长期以来，右前额叶皮层与形成咒骂倾向的各种认知过程有关，包括非命题语言表征、情绪调节、心理理论和情感唤醒。神经源性诅咒通常会造成严重的负面社会后果，并且对于这种交流障碍没有已知的行为干预。我们检查了通过 tDCS 进行的右侧与左侧侧化前额叶神经刺激是否可以调节神经典型成人的禁忌词产生。我们采用了双侧额电极蒙太奇的前/后设计。一半的参与者接受左阳极和右阴极刺激；其余的在相同的解剖位点接受相反极性的刺激。当参与者大声朗读禁忌和非禁忌词时，我们采用了生理（瞳孔测量法）和行为（反应时间）相关的测量方法。瞳孔反应表现出交叉反应，暗示在诅咒期间调节阶段性唤醒。右侧阳极条件下的参与者对刺激后的禁忌词表现出较高的瞳孔反应。相比之下，正确阴极条件下的参与者在刺激后对禁忌词的瞳孔反应表现出相对抑制。我们没有观察到刺激对响应时间的影响。我们将这些发现解释为支持对右半球情感唤醒的调节，这会不成比例地影响禁忌文字处理。