Context-dependency of uncertain and social decisions: Insights from brain stimulation and acute stress

Date

Mar 31, 2021

Time

12:40 PM - 2:00 PM

Speaker

Dr. Stefan Schulreich

Affiliation

Chair of Cognitive Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Human Movement, Science Universität Hamburg

Language

en

Main Topic

Psychologie

Host

Chair of Lifespan Developmental Neuroscience, TUD

Description

Decision making strongly depends on contextual features anticipated by classical decision theory, but also on those that deviate from its assumptions. However, how context contributes to decision making is still only incompletely understood. In this talk, I will present two studies, in which we aimed to unravel the neurocognitive mechanisms of two different contextual features – the type of uncertainty and acute stress – in uncertain and social decisions, respectively. In Study 1, we combined transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) with Bayesian modeling of choice behavior to elucidate the potentially causal role of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) in belief updating under different contexts of uncertainty (ambiguity vs. risk). Participants also underwent a psychosocial stress or control manipulation to investigate the role of stress, which is known to modulate dlPFC functioning. Our findings underscore the central role of the dlPFC in belief updating and highlight dissociable processes related to increased vs. decreased Bayesian rationality. In Study 2, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate stress-induced alterations in altruism. To this end, participants completed a charitable donation task before and after a psychosocial stress or control manipulation while we measured brain activity. Our behavioral and multivariate fMRI analyses reveal a potential influence of the stress hormone cortisol on altruism, which, however, is moderated by interindividual differences in social cognition – calling for a person-situation-interaction perspective. Despite dealing with different decision domains, both studies demonstrate the need to take context into account to reach a deeper understanding of the underlying processes as well as of inter- and intraindividual variability. https://tu-dresden.zoom.us/j/87421992133?pwd=QmZGd24xbU9rT2hkZGVndm9Zay9zZz09 Meeting ID: 874 2199 2133 Passcode: K07&5@$=

Links

• https://tu-dresden.zoom.us/j/87421992133?pwd=QmZGd24xbU9rT2hkZGVndm9Zay9zZz09

Last modified: Mar 17, 2021, 9:04:45 AM