title: Studying the neurobiology of social interaction with transcranial direct current stimulation--the example of punishing unfairness.
abstract: Studying social behavior often requires the simultaneous interaction of many subjects. As yet, however, no painless, noninvasive brain stimulation tool existed that allowed the simultaneous affection of brain processes in many interacting subjects. Here we show that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can overcome these limits. We apply right prefrontal cathodal tDCS and show that subjects' propensity to punish unfair behavior is reduced significantly.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Empirical Research in Economics, University of Zürich, 8006 Zürich, Switzerland. dknoch@iew.uzh.ch
authors.forename: Daria
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Knoch
authors.forename: Michael A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Nitsche
authors.forename: Urs
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Fischbacher
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Eisenegger
authors.forename: Alvaro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pascual-Leone
authors.forename: Ernst
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fehr
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005717:Games, Experimental; D006126:Group Processes; D006801:Humans; D009446:Neurobiology / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D011678:Punishment / Q000523:psychology*; D012919:Social Behavior; D012961:Sociology / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*