4.6 Article

Distinct Causal Influences of Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex and Posterior Parietal Cortex in Multiple-Option Decision Making

Journal

CEREBRAL CORTEX
Volume 32, Issue 7, Pages 1390-1404

Publisher

OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC
DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab278

Keywords

decision making; dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; multiple option; noninvasive brain stimulation; parietal cortex

Categories

Funding

  1. Hong Kong Research Grants Council [15603517]
  2. Hong Kong Polytechnic University
  3. HKU State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
  4. KAKENHI JP [18K03197]

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The study found that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) has a causal role in filtering choice-irrelevant information during multiple-option decision making, while the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) has a causal role in value-based spatial selection.
Our knowledge about neural mechanisms underlying decision making is largely based on experiments that involved few options. However, it is more common in daily life to choose between many options, in which processing choice information selectively is particularly important. The current study examined whether the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and posterior parietal cortex (PPC) are of particular importance to multiple-option decision making. Sixty-eight participants received anodal high definition-transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) to focally enhance dlPFC or PPC in a double-blind sham-controlled design. Participants then performed a multiple-option decision making task. We found longer fixations on poorer options were related to less optimal decisions. Interestingly, this negative impact was attenuated after applying anodal HD-tDCS over dlPFC, especially in choices with many options. This suggests that dlPFC has a causal role in filtering choice-irrelevant information. In contrast, these effects were absent after participants received anodal HD-tDCS over PPC. Instead, the choices made by these participants were more biased towards the best options presented on the side contralateral to the stimulation. This suggests PPC has a causal role in value-based spatial selection. To conclude, the dlPFC has a role in filtering undesirable options, whereas the PPC emphasizes the desirable contralateral options.

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