Mai Xiaoqin, Zhang Wenli, Hu Xinmu, Zhen Zhen, Xu Zhenhua, Zhang Jing, Liu Chao
Department of Psychology, Renmin University of China Beijing, China.
State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University Beijing, China.
Front Psychol. 2016 Mar 15;7:380. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00380. eCollection 2016.
The right temporo-parietal junction (rTPJ) is thought to be closely related to theory of mind (ToM) and cognitive empathy. In the present study, we investigated whether these socio-cognitive abilities could be modulated with non-invasive transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of the rTPJ. Participants received anodal (excitatory), cathodal (inhibitory), or sham stimulation before performing a social cognitive task which included inferring other's intention (the ToM condition) and inferring other's emotion (the cognitive empathy condition). Our results showed that the accuracy of both ToM and cognitive empathy decreased after receiving the cathodal stimulation, suggesting that altering the cortical excitability in the rTPJ could influence human's socio-cognitive abilities. The results of this study emphasize the critical role of the rTPJ in ToM and cognitive empathy and demonstrate that these socio-cognitive abilities could be modulated by the tDCS.
右颞顶联合区（rTPJ）被认为与心理理论（ToM）和认知共情密切相关。在本研究中，我们调查了这些社会认知能力是否可以通过对rTPJ进行非侵入性经颅直流电刺激（tDCS）来调节。参与者在执行一项社会认知任务之前接受阳极（兴奋性）、阴极（抑制性）或假刺激，该任务包括推断他人意图（心理理论条件）和推断他人情绪（认知共情条件）。我们的结果表明，接受阴极刺激后，心理理论和认知共情的准确性均下降，这表明改变rTPJ中的皮质兴奋性会影响人类的社会认知能力。本研究结果强调了rTPJ在心理理论和认知共情中的关键作用，并证明这些社会认知能力可以通过tDCS进行调节。
