Cargando…

Anodal tDCS over the medial prefrontal cortex enhances behavioral adaptation after punishments during reversal learning through increased updating of unchosen choice options

The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is thought to be central for flexible behavioral adaptation. However, the causal relationship between mPFC activity and this behavior is incompletely understood. We investigated whether transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the mPFC alters flexible b...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Panitz, Martin, Deserno, Lorenz, Kaminski, Elisabeth, Villringer, Arno, Sehm, Bernhard, Schlagenhauf, Florian
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8874878/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35233532
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/texcom/tgac006
_version_ 1784657793457848320
author Panitz, Martin
Deserno, Lorenz
Kaminski, Elisabeth
Villringer, Arno
Sehm, Bernhard
Schlagenhauf, Florian
author_facet Panitz, Martin
Deserno, Lorenz
Kaminski, Elisabeth
Villringer, Arno
Sehm, Bernhard
Schlagenhauf, Florian
author_sort Panitz, Martin
collection PubMed
description The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is thought to be central for flexible behavioral adaptation. However, the causal relationship between mPFC activity and this behavior is incompletely understood. We investigated whether transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the mPFC alters flexible behavioral adaptation during reward-based decision-making, targeting Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) coordinates X = −8, Y = 62, Z = 12, which has previously been associated with impaired behavioral adaptation in alcohol-dependent patients. Healthy human participants (n = 61) received either anodal (n = 30) or cathodal (n = 31) tDCS versus sham tDCS while performing a reversal learning task. To assess the mechanisms of reinforcement learning (RL) underlying our behavioral observations, we applied computational models that varied with respect to the updating of the unchosen choice option. We observed that anodal stimulation over the mPFC induced increased choice switching after punishments compared with sham stimulation, whereas cathodal stimulation showed no effect on participants’ behavior compared with sham stimulation. RL revealed increased updating of the unchosen choice option under anodal as compared with sham stimulation, which accounted well for the increased tendency to switch after punishments. Our findings provide a potential model for tDCS interventions in conditions related to flexible behavioral adaptation, such as addiction.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8874878
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher Oxford University Press
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-88748782022-02-28 Anodal tDCS over the medial prefrontal cortex enhances behavioral adaptation after punishments during reversal learning through increased updating of unchosen choice options Panitz, Martin Deserno, Lorenz Kaminski, Elisabeth Villringer, Arno Sehm, Bernhard Schlagenhauf, Florian Cereb Cortex Commun Original Article The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is thought to be central for flexible behavioral adaptation. However, the causal relationship between mPFC activity and this behavior is incompletely understood. We investigated whether transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the mPFC alters flexible behavioral adaptation during reward-based decision-making, targeting Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) coordinates X = −8, Y = 62, Z = 12, which has previously been associated with impaired behavioral adaptation in alcohol-dependent patients. Healthy human participants (n = 61) received either anodal (n = 30) or cathodal (n = 31) tDCS versus sham tDCS while performing a reversal learning task. To assess the mechanisms of reinforcement learning (RL) underlying our behavioral observations, we applied computational models that varied with respect to the updating of the unchosen choice option. We observed that anodal stimulation over the mPFC induced increased choice switching after punishments compared with sham stimulation, whereas cathodal stimulation showed no effect on participants’ behavior compared with sham stimulation. RL revealed increased updating of the unchosen choice option under anodal as compared with sham stimulation, which accounted well for the increased tendency to switch after punishments. Our findings provide a potential model for tDCS interventions in conditions related to flexible behavioral adaptation, such as addiction. Oxford University Press 2022-01-27 /pmc/articles/PMC8874878/ /pubmed/35233532 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/texcom/tgac006 Text en © The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Article
Panitz, Martin
Deserno, Lorenz
Kaminski, Elisabeth
Villringer, Arno
Sehm, Bernhard
Schlagenhauf, Florian
Anodal tDCS over the medial prefrontal cortex enhances behavioral adaptation after punishments during reversal learning through increased updating of unchosen choice options
title Anodal tDCS over the medial prefrontal cortex enhances behavioral adaptation after punishments during reversal learning through increased updating of unchosen choice options
title_full Anodal tDCS over the medial prefrontal cortex enhances behavioral adaptation after punishments during reversal learning through increased updating of unchosen choice options
title_fullStr Anodal tDCS over the medial prefrontal cortex enhances behavioral adaptation after punishments during reversal learning through increased updating of unchosen choice options
title_full_unstemmed Anodal tDCS over the medial prefrontal cortex enhances behavioral adaptation after punishments during reversal learning through increased updating of unchosen choice options
title_short Anodal tDCS over the medial prefrontal cortex enhances behavioral adaptation after punishments during reversal learning through increased updating of unchosen choice options
title_sort anodal tdcs over the medial prefrontal cortex enhances behavioral adaptation after punishments during reversal learning through increased updating of unchosen choice options
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8874878/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35233532
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/texcom/tgac006
work_keys_str_mv AT panitzmartin anodaltdcsoverthemedialprefrontalcortexenhancesbehavioraladaptationafterpunishmentsduringreversallearningthroughincreasedupdatingofunchosenchoiceoptions
AT desernolorenz anodaltdcsoverthemedialprefrontalcortexenhancesbehavioraladaptationafterpunishmentsduringreversallearningthroughincreasedupdatingofunchosenchoiceoptions
AT kaminskielisabeth anodaltdcsoverthemedialprefrontalcortexenhancesbehavioraladaptationafterpunishmentsduringreversallearningthroughincreasedupdatingofunchosenchoiceoptions
AT villringerarno anodaltdcsoverthemedialprefrontalcortexenhancesbehavioraladaptationafterpunishmentsduringreversallearningthroughincreasedupdatingofunchosenchoiceoptions
AT sehmbernhard anodaltdcsoverthemedialprefrontalcortexenhancesbehavioraladaptationafterpunishmentsduringreversallearningthroughincreasedupdatingofunchosenchoiceoptions
AT schlagenhaufflorian anodaltdcsoverthemedialprefrontalcortexenhancesbehavioraladaptationafterpunishmentsduringreversallearningthroughincreasedupdatingofunchosenchoiceoptions