1
|
Zhang H, Xiong G, Cai S, Wu S. A Causal Role of Right Temporoparietal Junction in Prosocial Learning: A Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Study. Neuroscience 2024; 538:59-67. [PMID: 38145822 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2023.12.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2023] [Revised: 11/27/2023] [Accepted: 12/18/2023] [Indexed: 12/27/2023]
Abstract
Prosocial behavior is a common and important aspect of everyday social life. To behave prosocially, we need to learn the consequences of our actions for other people, known as prosocial learning. Previous studies have identified the right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) as the critical neurological substrate for prosocial behavior. However, little is known about the causal role of the rTPJ in prosocial learning. To clarify the role of the rTPJ in prosocial learning, we used a reinforcement learning paradigm and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). A total of 75 participants were recruited and randomly assigned to the anodal or sham tDCS group. While receiving tDCS stimulation over the rTPJ, participants were instructed to choose between different stimuli that were probabilistically associated with rewards for themselves in the self-learning condition or for another person in the prosocial-learning condition. Participants were able to learn to obtain rewards for themselves or others, and learning performance in the self-learning condition was better than that in the prosocial-learning condition. However, anodal tDCS over the rTPJ significantly improved learning performance in the prosocial-learning condition. These results indicate that the rTPJ plays a causal role in prosocial learning.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Hanqi Zhang
- School of Economics and Management, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China; Key Lab for Behavioral Economic Science & Technology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China
| | - Guanxing Xiong
- School of Economics and Management, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China; Key Lab for Behavioral Economic Science & Technology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China.
| | - Shenggang Cai
- School of Economics and Management, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China; Key Lab for Behavioral Economic Science & Technology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China
| | - Shijing Wu
- School of Economics and Management, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China; Key Lab for Behavioral Economic Science & Technology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China.
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Liu Y, Xing H, Gao Y, Bian X, Fu X, DiFabrizio B, Wang H. Disrupting the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Attenuates the Difference in Decision-Making for Altruistic Punishment Between the Gain and Loss Contexts. Brain Topogr 2024:10.1007/s10548-023-01029-9. [PMID: 38200358 DOI: 10.1007/s10548-023-01029-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2023] [Accepted: 12/08/2023] [Indexed: 01/12/2024]
Abstract
Altruistic punishment is a primary response to social norms violations; its neural mechanism has also attracted extensive research attention. In the present studies, we applied a low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) while participants engaged in a modified Ultimatum Game (Study 1) and third-party punishment game (Study 2) to explore how the bilateral DLPFC disruption affects people's perception of violation of fairness norms and altruistic punishment decision in the gain and loss contexts. Typically, punishers intervene more often against and show more social outrage towards Dictators/Proposers who unfairly distribute losses than those who unfairly share gains. We found that disrupting the function of the left DLPFC in the second-party punishment and the bilateral DLPFC in the third-party punishment with rTMS effectively obliterated this difference, making participants punish unfairly shared gains as often as they usually would punish unfairly shared losses. In the altruistic punishment of maintaining the social fairness norms, the inhibition of the right DLPFC function will affect the deviation of individual information integration ability; the inhibition of the left DLPFC function will affect the assessment of the degree of violation of fairness norms and weaken impulse control, leading to attenuate the moderating effect of gain and loss contexts on altruistic punishment. Our findings emphasize that DLPFC is closely related to altruistic punishment and provide causal neuroscientific evidence.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yingjie Liu
- School of Public Health, North China University of Science and Technology, 21 Bohai Avenue, Caofeidian District, Tangshan, Hebei, China
- School of Psychology and Mental Health, North China University of Science and Technology, 21 Bohai Avenue, Caofeidian District, Tangshan, Hebei, China
| | - Hongbo Xing
- School of Psychology and Mental Health, North China University of Science and Technology, 21 Bohai Avenue, Caofeidian District, Tangshan, Hebei, China
| | - Yuan Gao
- School of Psychology and Mental Health, North China University of Science and Technology, 21 Bohai Avenue, Caofeidian District, Tangshan, Hebei, China
| | - Xiaohua Bian
- School of Educational Science, International Joint Laboratory of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences, Zhengzhou Normal University, No.16 Yingcai Street, Huiji District, Zhengzhou, Henan, China
| | - Xin Fu
- School of Psychology and Mental Health, North China University of Science and Technology, 21 Bohai Avenue, Caofeidian District, Tangshan, Hebei, China
| | | | - He Wang
- School of Public Health, North China University of Science and Technology, 21 Bohai Avenue, Caofeidian District, Tangshan, Hebei, China.
- School of Psychology and Mental Health, North China University of Science and Technology, 21 Bohai Avenue, Caofeidian District, Tangshan, Hebei, China.
| |
Collapse
|