Participants

Sample size was based on our previous study exploring the effect of right dlPFC rTMS on anxiety, which used a similar design¹⁷. Twenty-five participants were enrolled in the study. All subjects met the inclusion/exclusion criteria, which included: aged 18–50, English speaking, no Axis I diagnosis¹⁸, no medication use, no neurological issues, and no MRI/TMS contraindications. Of the enrolled subjects, seven were withdrawn from the study for the following reasons: one subject was unable to attend all study sessions, one subject was not compliant during the TMS procedure, one subject had neurological condition revealed on the MRI scan, the equipment failed for one subject, we were unable to find the motor threshold for one subject, and one subject had an abnormally low percentage of startle responses to the white noise presentations (<30%). The remaining 19 subjects (mean age = 29.11 years, SD = 8.47), included 13 females. All participants gave written informed consent approved by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Combined Neuroscience Institutional Review Board and were compensated for their time.