Noninvasive stimulation of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex increases rationality of human decision-making

Abstract

The framing-effect is a bias that affects decision-making depending on whether the available options are presented with positive or negative connotations. Even when the outcome of two choices is equivalent, people have a strong tendency to avoid the negatively framed option because losses are perceived about twice as salient as gains of the same amount (i.e. loss-aversion). The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is crucial for rational decision-making, and dysfunctions in this region have been linked to cognitive biases, impulsive behavior and gambling addiction. Using a financial decision-making task in combination with magnetoencephalographic neuroimaging, we show that excitatory compared to inhibitory non-invasive transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of the vmPFC reduces framing-effects while improving the assessment of loss-probabilities, ultimately leading to increased overall gains. Behavioral and neural data consistently suggest that this improvement in rational decision-making is predominately a consequence of reduced loss-aversion. These findings recommend further research towards clinical applications of vmPFC-tDCS in addictive disorders.