title: Modulating activity in the orbitofrontal cortex changes trustees' cooperation: A transcranial direct current stimulation study.
abstract: Trust is one of the most important factors in human society, as it pervades almost all domains of the society. The trusting behavior of trustors is dependent on the belief about the cooperative (reciprocal) level of trustees. Thence what are the motives underlying the cooperative behavior? An important explanation is that guilt aversion can motivate cooperative behavior. The right orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is the guilt-specific region, while there is little understanding on the causal effect of this network. We explored the causal effect of the OFC on cooperative behavior using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Sixty participants played the trust game as trustees, and they received either anodal tDCS over the right OFC and simultaneously cathodal electrode over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), or sham stimulation. Experimental results showed that participants as trustees transferred back more money in the tDCS treatment than sham stimulation. This suggests that the activity of the right OFC has causal effects on cooperative behavior.
authors.affiliation: Neural Decision Science Laboratory, Weifang University, PR China; Selten Laboratory, Nankai University, PR China; China Academy of Corporate Governance, Nankai University, PR China. Electronic address: grongw@126.com.
authors.forename: Guangrong
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Selten Laboratory, Nankai University, PR China; China Academy of Corporate Governance, Nankai University, PR China.
authors.forename: Jianbiao
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Selten Laboratory, Nankai University, PR China; China Academy of Corporate Governance, Nankai University, PR China.
authors.forename: Xile
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: Selten Laboratory, Nankai University, PR China; China Academy of Corporate Governance, Nankai University, PR China.
authors.forename: Shuaiqi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: The University of Leicester, UK.
authors.forename: Mengxing
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wei
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D065908:Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation; D035502:Trust; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Cooperation; OFC; Reciprocity; Trust game; tDCS