scholarly journals Role of the prefrontal cortex in prosocial and self-maximization motivations: an rTMS study

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Oksana Zinchenko ◽  
Olga Savelo ◽  
Vasily Klucharev
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Prosocial Behavior ◽  
Dictator Game ◽  
Prosocial Motives ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽  
The Right ◽  
Theta Burst ◽  
Continuous Theta Burst Stimulation ◽  
Healthy Participants

AbstractMore than a decade of neuroimaging and brain stimulation studies point to a crucial role for the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC) in prosocial behavior. The intuitive prosociality model postulates that the rDLPFC controls intuitive prosocial behavior, whereas the reflective model assumes that the rDLPFC controls selfish impulses during prosocial behavior. The intuitive prosociality model implies that the transient disruption of the rDLPFC should increase voluntary transfers in both dictator and generosity games. In contrast, the reflective model suggests that the transient disruption of the rDLPFC should decrease transfers in the dictator game, without affecting voluntary transfers in the generosity game, in which selfish motives are minimized. The aim of this paper was to compare predictions of the intuitive and reflective models using the classic dictator game and generosity game and continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS). In this study, two groups of healthy participants (dictators) received either cTBS over the rDLPFC or right extrastriate visual areas. As shown by the results, the transient disruption of the rDLPFC significantly promoted prosocial motives in the dictator game only, particularly in the trials with the lowest dictator’s costs. These findings partially support the notion that the rDLPFC controls intuitive prosocial behavior.

scholarly journals Reducing future fears by suppressing the brain mechanisms underlying episodic simulation

2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (52) ◽  
pp. E8492-E8501 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roland G. Benoit ◽  
Daniel J. Davies ◽  
Michael C. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Episodic Simulation ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽  
Future Events ◽  
The Right ◽  
Development Of Anxiety ◽  
The Brain

Imagining future events conveys adaptive benefits, yet recurrent simulations of feared situations may help to maintain anxiety. In two studies, we tested the hypothesis that people can attenuate future fears by suppressing anticipatory simulations of dreaded events. Participants repeatedly imagined upsetting episodes that they feared might happen to them and suppressed imaginings of other such events. Suppressing imagination engaged the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which modulated activation in the hippocampus and in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Consistent with the role of the vmPFC in providing access to details that are typical for an event, stronger inhibition of this region was associated with greater forgetting of such details. Suppression further hindered participants’ ability to later freely envision suppressed episodes. Critically, it also reduced feelings of apprehensiveness about the feared scenario, and individuals who were particularly successful at down-regulating fears were also less trait-anxious. Attenuating apprehensiveness by suppressing simulations of feared events may thus be an effective coping strategy, suggesting that a deficiency in this mechanism could contribute to the development of anxiety.

Causal Role of the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex in Belief Updating under Uncertainty

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 184-200
Author(s):  
Stefan Schulreich ◽  
Lars Schwabe
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Causal Role ◽  
Uncertain Environments ◽  
Belief Updating ◽  
Frontoparietal Network ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽  
The Right ◽  
Normative Value

Abstract Adaptive performance in uncertain environments depends on the ability to continuously update internal beliefs about environmental states. Recent correlative evidence suggests that a frontoparietal network including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) supports belief updating under uncertainty, but whether the dlPFC serves a “causal” role in this process is currently not clear. To elucidate its contribution, we leveraged transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the right dlPFC, while 91 participants performed an incentivized belief-updating task. Participants also underwent a psychosocial stress or control manipulation to investigate the role of stress, which is known to modulate dlPFC functioning. We observed enhanced monetary value updating after anodal tDCS when it was normatively expected from a Bayesian perspective. A model-based analysis indicates that this effect was driven by belief updating. However, we also observed enhanced non-normative value updating, which might have been driven instead by expectancy violation. Enhanced normative and non-normative value updating reflected increased vs. decreased Bayesian rationality, respectively. Furthermore, cortisol increases were associated with enhanced positive, but not with negative, value updating. The present study thereby sheds light on the causal role of the right dlPFC in the remarkable human ability to navigate uncertain environments by continuously updating prior knowledge following new evidence.

scholarly journals Potential Neurophysiological Mechanisms of 1Hz-TMS to the Right Prefrontal Cortex for Depression: An Exploratory TMS-EEG Study in Healthy Participants

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 68
Author(s):  
Yoshihiro Noda
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Resting State ◽  
Gamma Band ◽  
Left Dlpfc ◽  
Eeg Data ◽  
Therapeutic Mechanism ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽  
Neurophysiological Mechanisms ◽  
The Right ◽  
Healthy Participants

Background: The present study aimed to examine the acute neurophysiological effects of 1Hz transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) administered to the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in healthy participants. Methods: TMS combined with simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG) recording was conducted for 21 healthy participants. For the right DLPFC, 1Hz-TMS (100 pulses/block × 17 sessions) was applied in the resting-state, while for the left DLPFC, 1Hz-TMS (100 pulses/block × 2 sessions) was administered during the verbal fluency tasks (VFTs). For TMS-EEG data, independent component analysis (ICA) was applied to extract TMS-evoked EEG potentials to calculate TMS-related power as well as TMS-related coherence from the F4 and F3 electrode sites during the resting-state and VFTs. Results: TMS-related power was significantly increased in alpha, beta, and gamma bands by 1Hz-TMS at the stimulation site during the resting-state, while TMS-related power was significantly increased in alpha and beta bands but not in the gamma band during the VFTs. On the other hand, TMS-related coherence in alpha and beta bands significantly increased but not in gamma band by 1Hz-TMS that was administered to the right DLPFC in resting-state, whereas there were no significant changes in coherence for all frequency bands by 1Hz-TMS that applied to the left DLPFC during the VFTs. Conclusions: Collectively, 1Hz-repetitive TMS (rTMS) to the right DLPFC may rapidly neuromodulate EEG activity, which might be associated with a therapeutic mechanism for depression.

The Role of the Dorsal–Lateral Prefrontal Cortex in Reward Sensitivity During Approach–Avoidance Conflict

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camarin E Rolle ◽  
Mads L Pedersen ◽  
Noriah Johnson ◽  
Ken-ichi Amemori ◽  
Maria Ironside ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Avoidance Behavior ◽  
Reward Sensitivity ◽  
Diffusion Modeling ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽  
Current Task ◽  
Approach Avoidance ◽  
Cortical Regions ◽  
The Right

Abstract Approach–Avoidance conflict (AAC) arises from decisions with embedded positive and negative outcomes, such that approaching leads to reward and punishment and avoiding to neither. Despite its importance, the field lacks a mechanistic understanding of which regions are driving avoidance behavior during conflict. In the current task, we utilized transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and drift-diffusion modeling to investigate the role of one of the most prominent regions relevant to AAC—the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). The first experiment uses in-task disruption to examine the right dlPFC’s (r-dlPFC) causal role in avoidance behavior. The second uses single TMS pulses to probe the excitability of the r-dlPFC, and downstream cortical activations, during avoidance behavior. Disrupting r-dlPFC during conflict decision-making reduced reward sensitivity. Further, r-dlPFC was engaged with a network of regions within the lateral and medial prefrontal, cingulate, and temporal cortices that associate with behavior during conflict. Together, these studies use TMS to demonstrate a role for the dlPFC in reward sensitivity during conflict and elucidate the r-dlPFC’s network of cortical regions associated with avoidance behavior. By identifying r-dlPFC’s mechanistic role in AAC behavior, contextualized within its conflict-specific downstream neural connectivity, we advance dlPFC as a potential neural target for psychiatric therapeutics.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document