title: The Importance of the Lateral Prefrontal Cortex for Strategic Decision Making in the Prisoner's Dilemma.
abstract: Previous functional imaging studies investigating the neural basis of strategic decision making in the prisoner's dilemma reported a correlation between cooperative behavior and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activity; however, the precise function of the DLPFC in establishing cooperation remains unclear so far. The present study investigated the causal role of the DLPFC in an iterative prisoner's dilemma game with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). We discovered that disrupting the DLPFC with TMS decreased cooperation rates in comparison to control conditions, with this effect being most pronounced when the partner had defected previously. Thus, the current results suggest that the DLPFC contributes to strategic decision making in the prisoner's dilemma game.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany. alexander.soutschek@econ.uzh.ch.|Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research, Department of Economics, University of Zurich, Blumlisalpstr. 10, 8006, Zurich, Switzerland. alexander.soutschek@econ.uzh.ch.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Soutschek
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.|Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Marian
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sauter
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Torsten
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schubert
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D000068956:Prisoner Dilemma; D011897:Random Allocation; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation / Q000009:adverse effects; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Cooperation; Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; Game theory; Prisoner’s dilemma; Strategic decision making