Centre for Cognition and Decision Making, Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, HSE University, Moscow, Russia, 101000.
Department of Psychology, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
Sci Rep. 2023 Jun 20;13(1):9995. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-36192-3.
Neocortical structures of the left frontal lobe, middle frontal gyrus (MFG) in particular, have been suggested to be linked to the processing of punishing and unpleasant outcomes in decision tasks. To assess the role of left MFG (lMFG) in communicative decisions, we used repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to inhibit its function during communicational exchanges under two types of social contexts: formal and informal. Three groups of participants received an offline 1-Hz inhibitory rTMS of lMFG, right MFG as an active control site, or lMFG sham/placebo TMS as a passive control condition. Participants' task included answering difficult general-knowledge questions, rating their confidence in their answers' correctness, and, finally, deciding if they would report or withhold these answers in formal and informal social contexts. There were significantly more reported than withheld answers in the informal context in all groups. The formal context showed no differences between reported and withheld answers in both control conditions, while, crucially, real rTMS of lMFG produced a different pattern, with more withheld than reported answers. Thus, lMFG inhibition seems to result in more rational decisions made only in formal communication contexts, where there is a perception of a certain pressure or possible negative outcomes. In informal social contexts and in the absence of negative consequences the pattern of answers did not change, regardless of the reporting strategy or the TMS protocol used. These results suggest selective context-dependent involvement of the lMFG in decision-making processes during communicational exchanges taking place under social pressure.
左侧额皮质的新皮质结构，特别是额中回（MFG），被认为与决策任务中惩罚和不愉快结果的处理有关。为了评估左侧 MFG（lMFG）在交际决策中的作用，我们在两种社会情境下使用重复经颅磁刺激（rTMS）来抑制其功能：正式和非正式。三组参与者接受了离线 1Hz 抑制性 rTMS 的 lMFG、右侧 MFG 作为主动对照部位，或 lMFG 假刺激/TMS 作为被动对照条件。参与者的任务包括回答困难的常识问题、评估他们对答案正确性的信心，最后决定他们是否会在正式和非正式的社会情境中报告或保留这些答案。在所有组中，非正式情境下的报告答案都明显多于保留答案。在两个对照条件下，正式情境下的报告答案和保留答案之间没有差异，而关键的是，lMFG 的真实 rTMS 产生了不同的模式，保留答案多于报告答案。因此，lMFG 抑制似乎只会导致在正式交流情境中做出更理性的决策，因为在这些情境中存在某种压力或可能出现负面结果的感知。在非正式的社会情境中，并且在没有负面后果的情况下，无论使用报告策略还是 TMS 方案，答案模式都不会改变。这些结果表明，在社会压力下进行交际交流时，lMFG 在决策过程中存在选择性的上下文依赖性参与。
