Journal
CEREBRAL CORTEX
Volume 32, Issue 6, Pages 1269-1285Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC
DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab292
Keywords
approach-avoidance conflict; cognitive neuroscience; dlPFC; drift-diffusion modeling; EEG; spectral power; TMS
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Funding
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stoke [R01 NS025529]
- Army Research Office [W911NF-16-1-0474]
- Saks Kavanaugh Foundation
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This article investigates the role of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) in approach-avoidance conflict (AAC) behavior using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and drift-diffusion modeling. It demonstrates that disrupting the dlPFC reduces reward sensitivity during conflict decision-making and identifies its network of cortical regions associated with avoidance behavior. These findings advance our understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying AAC behavior and suggest the dlPFC as a potential target for psychiatric therapeutics.
Approach-Avoidance conflict (AAC) arises from decisions with embedded positive and negative outcomes, such that approaching leads to reward and punishment and avoiding to neither. Despite its importance, the field lacks a mechanistic understanding of which regions are driving avoidance behavior during conflict. In the current task, we utilized transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and drift-diffusion modeling to investigate the role of one of the most prominent regions relevant to AAC-the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). The first experiment uses in-task disruption to examine the right dlPFC's (r-dlPFC) causal role in avoidance behavior. The second uses single TMS pulses to probe the excitability of the r-dlPFC, and downstream cortical activations, during avoidance behavior. Disrupting r-dlPFC during conflict decision-making reduced reward sensitivity. Further, r-dlPFC was engaged with a network of regions within the lateral and medial prefrontal, cingulate, and temporal cortices that associate with behavior during conflict. Together, these studies use TMS to demonstrate a role for the dlPFC in reward sensitivity during conflict and elucidate the r-dlPFC's network of cortical regions associated with avoidance behavior. By identifying r-dlPFC's mechanistic role in AAC behavior, contextualized within its conflict-specific downstream neural connectivity, we advance dlPFC as a potential neural target for psychiatric therapeutics.
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