Transcranial direct current stimulation above the medial prefrontal cortex facilitates decision-making following periods of low outcome controllability

Csifcsák, Gábor; Bjørkøy, Jorunn; Kuyateh, Sarjo; Reithe, Haakon; Mittner, Matthias

doi:10.31234/osf.io/rbeuz

Cited by 1 publication

(7 citation statements)

References 37 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Altogether, the mPFC/dACC seems to be crucial for mediating both Pavlovian-instrumental interaction and the effect of outcome controllability on task performance. In line with this assumption, healthy humans receiving anodal high-density transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) over the mPFC/dACC while facing uncontrollable outcomes during RL improved task performance after control was regained (Csifcsák, Bjørkøy, et al, 2020). In addition, PB was reduced in participants receiving active HD-tDCS during diminished outcome controllability but not in participants undergoing either active HD-tDCS or the controllability manipulation alone, suggesting that the level of control over rewards/losses interferes with the degree to which mPFC/dACC suppresses PB.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%

“…We used a computerized version of an orthogonalized Go-NoGo RL task (Cavanagh et al, 2013;Csifcsák, Bjørkøy, et al, 2020;Csifcsák, Melsaeter, et al, 2020;Guitart-Masip et al, 2012) designed to investigate PB during instrumental learning. The participants should learn to maximize the rewards and minimize losses by trial-and-error, through correctly responding ('Go') or not responding ('NoGo') to a given stimulus (card).…”

Section: Experimental Taskmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In contrast with earlier studies (Cavanagh et al, 2013;Csifcsák et al, 2021;Csifcsák, Melsaeter, et al, 2020), we decided to increase the contingency level in the controllable blocks to 80/20% (compared to the original 70/30%) in order to contrast the "control" vs. "no control" blocks even further. During the second block, rewards were delivered at random (response-feedback contingency was set to 50/50%).…”

Section: Experimental Taskmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In order to estimate the latent parameters of RL, we used the approach used in previous studies (Cavanagh et al, 2013;Csifcsák, Bjørkøy, et al, 2020;Csifcsák, Melsaeter, et al, 2020;Swart et al, 2018) and fitted an RL model that includes an estimate of the Pavlovian bias (parameter π) to the data.…”

Section: Computational Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The previously reported protocols for manipulating outcome controllability during RL consisted of pairing participants in terms of reward/loss frequency, similar to "yoking" paradigms in animal studies of LH (Csifcsák, Bjørkøy, et al, 2020;Csifcsák, Melsaeter, et al, 2020;Maier & Seligman, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Transcranial direct-current stimulation enhances Pavlovian tendencies during intermittent loss of control

Sedlinská¹,

Bolte²,

Melsæter³

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Pavlovian bias is an innate motivational tendency to approach rewards and remain passive in the face of punishment. The relative reliance on Pavlovian valuation has been found to increase when the perceived control over environmental reinforcers is compromised, leading to behavior resembling learned helplessness (LH). In our study, we used a version of an orthogonalized Go-NoGo reinforcement learning task to examine the relative reliance on Pavlovian and instrumental valuation during and after an intermittent loss of control over rewards and losses. Sixty healthy young adults underwent the task and received anodal high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) over the medial prefrontal/ dorsal anterior cingulate cortex in a randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled study. Furthermore, we evaluated changes in cue-locked mid-frontal theta power derived from electroencephalography. We hypothesized that active stimulation would reduce Pavlovian bias during manipulation of outcome controllability, and the effect would be accompanied by stronger mid-frontal theta activity, representing arbitration between choice strategies in favor of instrumental relative to Pavlovian valuation. We found a progressive decrease in Pavlovian bias during and after the loss of control over feedback. Active HD-tDCS counteracted this effect while not affecting the mid-frontal theta signal. The results were at odds with our hypotheses but also with previous findings reporting LH-like patterns during and after the loss of control without brain stimulation. The discrepancy may be related to different protocols for the controllability manipulation. We argue that the subjective evaluation of task controllability is crucial in mediating the balance between Pavlovian and instrumental valuation during reinforcement learning and that the medial prefrontal/dorsal anterior cingulate cortex is a key region in this respect. These findings have implications for understanding the behavioral and neural underpinnings of LH in humans.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%