2019 Conference on Cognitive Computational Neuroscience

13-16 September 2019    Berlin, Germany

Technical Program

Paper Detail

Paper: PS-2B.55
Session: Poster Session 2B
Location: H Fläche 1.OG
Session Time: Sunday, September 15, 17:15 - 20:15
Presentation Time:Sunday, September 15, 17:15 - 20:15
Presentation: Poster
Publication: 2019 Conference on Cognitive Computational Neuroscience, 13-16 September 2019, Berlin, Germany
Paper Title: The causal role of temporoparietal junction in computing social influence in human decision-making
Manuscript:  Click here to view manuscript
License: Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.32470/CCN.2019.1120-0
Authors: Lei Zhang, Farid Kandil, Claus Hilgetag, Jan Gläscher, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany
Abstract: Decision-making in social contexts is commonly driven by two major sources of social influence: normative influence and informational influence. Our previous work has dissociated these two types of social influence, and have identified that bilateral temporoparietal junction (TPJ) encodes normative influence. However, it remains unclear whether the effect of normative influence causally depends on activity in the TPJ. Here, we present a transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) study using a similar paradigm in a within-subject design (i.e., right TPJ, left TPJ, and vertex). Behavioral results indicate that disrupting activity in the left TPJ resulted in reduced choice switch probability (i.e., less influenced by dissenting social information), relative to the right TPJ and vertex conditions. Computational modeling with hierarchical Bayesian parameter estimation suggests that the corresponding parameter quantifying normative influence significantly decreased in the left TPJ condition. However, the extent to which informational influence (i.e., social learning) was integrated into individuals’ valuation processes was comparable in all three conditions. Together, our results provide evidence for the causal role of left TPJ in computing normative social influence in human decision-making, whereas the integration of informative social influence in value computation remains intact.