Kroker Thomas, Wyczesany Miroslaw, Rehbein Maimu Alissa, Roesmann Kati, Wessing Ida, Wiegand Anja, Bölte Jens, Junghöfer Markus
Institute for Biomagnetism and Biosignalanalysis, University of Muenster, Malmedyweg 15, 48149, Muenster, Germany.
Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Muenster, Germany.
Sci Rep. 2023 Oct 20;13(1):17984. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-43264-x.
Humans are subject to a variety of cognitive biases, such as the framing-effect or the gambler's fallacy, that lead to decisions unfitting of a purely rational agent. Previous studies have shown that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) plays a key role in making rational decisions and that stronger vmPFC activity is associated with attenuated cognitive biases. Accordingly, dysfunctions of the vmPFC are associated with impulsive decisions and pathological gambling. By applying a gambling paradigm in a between-subjects design with 33 healthy adults, we demonstrate that vmPFC excitation via transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) reduces the framing-effect and the gambler's fallacy compared to sham stimulation. Corresponding magnetoencephalographic data suggest improved inhibition of maladaptive options after excitatory vmPFC-tDCS. Our analyses suggest that the underlying mechanism might be improved reinforcement learning, as effects only emerge over time. These findings encourage further investigations of whether excitatory vmPFC-tDCS has clinical utility in treating pathological gambling or other behavioral addictions.
人类容易受到各种认知偏差的影响，比如框架效应或赌徒谬误，这些偏差会导致做出不符合纯粹理性主体的决策。先前的研究表明，腹内侧前额叶皮层（vmPFC）在做出理性决策中起关键作用，且更强的vmPFC活动与减弱的认知偏差相关。因此，vmPFC功能障碍与冲动决策和病态赌博有关。通过在33名健康成年人的组间设计中应用赌博范式，我们证明，与假刺激相比，经颅直流电刺激（tDCS）引起的vmPFC兴奋可减少框架效应和赌徒谬误。相应的脑磁图数据表明，兴奋性vmPFC-tDCS后对适应不良选项的抑制作用有所改善。我们的分析表明，潜在机制可能是强化学习得到改善，因为效应仅随时间出现。这些发现促使人们进一步研究兴奋性vmPFC-tDCS在治疗病态赌博或其他行为成瘾方面是否具有临床效用。
