High-frequency rTMS on DLPFC increases prosocial attitude in case of decision to support people

Abstract

Engaging in prosocial behavior was explored in the present research, by investigating the role of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in modulation of intention to support other people and of emotional attuning as it was expressed by facial feedback (electromiography, EMG). High-frequency rTMS was applied on DLPFC to 25 subjects when they were required to choose to directly intervene or not to support other people in emotionally valenced social situations (cooperative, noncooperative, conflictual, neutral contexts). Two control conditions were included in the experimental design to control the simple stimulation effect (sham condition with absence of TMS stimulation) and the location effect (control site condition with Pz stimulation). In comparison with sham and control condition, rTMS stimulation induced increased prosocial behavior in all the emotional situations. Moreover, as a function of valence, zygomatic (for positive situations) and corrugators (for negative situations) muscle activity was increased, with significant effect by DLPFC stimulation which induced a "facilitation effect". In addition, negative situations showed a higher rTMS impact for both behavioral and EMG responsiveness. Finally, prosocial behavior was found to be predicted (regression analysis) by EMG variations, as a function of the negative versus positive valence. The prefrontal circuit was suggested to support emotional responsiveness and facial feedback in order to facilitate the prosocial behavior.

Emotions and BIS/BAS components affect brain activity (ERPs and fNIRS) in observing intra-species and inter-species interactions

“…Indeed, the N200 higher deflection in the anterior brain region was directly associated with negatively valenced situations. In accordance with its frontal localization, the N200 we may suggest that this negative deflection is involved in the detection and evaluation of relevant and threatening patterns (Balconi and Canavesio 2014;Balconi and Lucchiari 2007;Posner and Raichle 1997). This observation is in accordance with other findings which showed the N200 is most pronounced over the frontal cortex for arousing negative related stimuli (Balconi and Canavesio 2014;Pastor et al 2008).…”

“…This affective behavior was found to be related to the ability to comprehend emotions and feelings of others, where Bresonance^mechanisms, i.e. the affective responsiveness to the social context, permit a direct form of understanding between the observer and the observed person (Balconi and Bortolotti 2014;Balconi and Canavesio 2014;Decety and Grèzes 2006). That is, affective components include the ability to monitor and regulate own and other's emotional processes (Chauhan et al 2008;Lee et al, 2008) since these components allow to have a coherent (resonance) emotional response to the emotional situations.…”

When Cooperation Was Efficient or Inefficient. Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Evidence

“…In this second case we can assume a sort of renewed cooperation to compensate a previous failure. This should involve more frontal cortical portions related to prosocial support and emotional empathic response, as reported in some studies (Balconi and Canavesio, 2013a,b, 2014). In addition, based on the valence model of emotions, a lateralized responsiveness should suggest a right-sided than a left-sided prefrontal activity (Demaree, 2005; Balconi et al, 2009, 2015a,b; Harmon-Jones et al, 2010).…”

“…This kind of behavior is addressed toward the realization of a definite objective that can provide benefits to all the people involved. While chasing such targets, a set of cognitive and affective mechanisms arise and support behavior (Balconi et al, 2012; Balconi and Canavesio, 2013, 2014; Liu et al, 2015, 2016; Balconi and Vanutelli, 2016a; Vanutelli et al, 2016). Moreover, during cooperation, the behavioral performance essentially entails the involvement of social cognition processes (Decety et al, 2004; Declerck et al, 2010).…”

Conscious, Pre-Conscious and Unconscious Mechanisms in Emotional Behaviour. Some Applications to the Mindfulness Approach with Wearable Devices

“…Specifically, with regard to the development of an integrated sense of self and its representations in the future, mindfulness practice might have a positive effect on the activity of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which is implicated in social perspective-taking, self-monitoring, emotional regulation, and coding of affective responses and emotionally-connoted information [54][55][56][57][58][59].…”