title: A causal role for posterior medial frontal cortex in choice-induced preference change.
abstract: After a person chooses between two items, preference for the chosen item will increase and preference for the unchosen item will decrease because of the choice made. In other words, we tend to justify or rationalize our past behavior by changing our attitude. This phenomenon of choice-induced preference change has been traditionally explained by cognitive dissonance theory. Choosing something that is disliked or not choosing something that is liked are both cognitively inconsistent and, to reduce this inconsistency, people tend to change their subsequently stated preference in accordance with their past choices. Previously, human neuroimaging studies identified posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) as a key brain region involved in cognitive dissonance. However, it remains unknown whether the pMFC plays a causal role in inducing preference change after cognitive dissonance. Here, we demonstrate that 25 min, 1 Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation applied over the pMFC significantly reduces choice-induced preference change compared with sham stimulation or control stimulation over a different brain region, demonstrating a causal role for the pMFC.
authors.affiliation: Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, Brain Science Institute, Tamagawa University, Machida, Tokyo 194-8610, Japan, keise.izuma@york.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Keise
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Izuma
authors.affiliation: Departments of Genetics and Psychiatry, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63110.
authors.forename: Shyam
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Akula
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Reading, Whiteknights Reading RG6 6AL, United Kingdom, and.
authors.forename: Kou
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Murayama
authors.affiliation: Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125.
authors.forename: Daw-An
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4296-3369
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0035-5413
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Iacoboni
authors.affiliation: Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125.
authors.forename: Ralph
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Adolphs
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003073:Cognitive Dissonance; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
keywords: TMS; attitude; choice justification; cognitive dissonance; medial prefrontal cortex; preference change