Modulating the Activity of vmPFC Regulates Informational Social Conformity: A tDCS Study

• Main Authors: Yuzhen Li, Jinjin Wang, Hang Ye, Jun Luo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-09-01
• Series: Frontiers in Psychology
• Subjects: social conformity; ventromedial prefrontal cortex; transcranial direct current stimulation; perceptual decision-making; informational influence
• Online Access: https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.566977/full

Social conformity has been evaluated in many different contexts, ranging from an emotional contagion in psychology, to speculative episodes in economics, to mass protests concerning politics. Previous neuroscience studies suggest that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) participates in social conformity, especially when it comes to the value integration process, but the specific mechanism of vmPFC is still unclear. In this study, we aimed to identify a direct link between the vmPFC and conformity tendencies by means of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Conformity tendencies are measured by the probability that participants change their decisions when they observe the majority responses. In our experiment, subjects could make two decisions in each trial, once without social information and once with social information, which allowed us to directly observe the conformity tendency of subjects in different conditions. We found that cathodal stimulation of the vmPFC significantly increased conformity tendency and decreased response time when the initial decision of participants differs from the majority opinion. Based on the experimental results, our study suggests that the vmPFC mainly inhibits and regulates the informational conformity behavior. These findings complement investigations of the neural mechanism of conformity and the role of the vmPFC in the neural circuit behind conformity behavior.