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Brain switches utilitarian behavior: does gender make the difference?

Manuela Fumagalli1, Maurizio Vergari, Patrizio Pasqualetti

  • 1Dipartimento di Scienze Neurologiche, Università di Milano, Milano, Italy.

Plos One
|January 30, 2010
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

This study explored the neurophysiology of utilitarian decisions. Anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the ventral prefrontal cortex (VPC) increased utilitarian responses in females, suggesting gender-specific brain control over moral choices.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Moral Psychology
  • Cognitive Science

Background:

  • Utilitarian decision-making, prioritizing overall good at personal cost, lacks clear neurophysiological understanding.
  • The ventral prefrontal cortex (VPC) is implicated in decision-making, but its specific role in utilitarian choices and potential gender differences are under-explored.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the neurophysiological underpinnings of utilitarian behavior using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS).
  • To examine the influence of tDCS on the ventral prefrontal cortex (VPC) and occipital cortex (OC) on utilitarian judgments and reaction times.
  • To explore potential gender-specific effects of tDCS on utilitarian decision-making.

Main Methods:

  • 78 healthy subjects received tDCS over the VPC and OC.
  • Moral judgment tasks assessed utilitarian responses before and after tDCS.
  • Reaction times for utilitarian responses were recorded.

Main Results:

  • Females exhibited fewer utilitarian responses than males at baseline for personal dilemmas.
  • Cathodal VPC-tDCS decreased utilitarian responses in females; anodal VPC-tDCS increased them.
  • Cathodal VPC-tDCS decreased reaction times for utilitarian responses in both genders.
  • Anodal VPC-tDCS modulated utilitarian reasoning more significantly in females.

Conclusions:

  • Ventral prefrontal cortex (VPC) tDCS influences utilitarian decisions, affecting option evaluation differently in males and females.
  • Cathodal tDCS impacts utilitarian reasoning time in both sexes, while anodal tDCS more profoundly affects female utilitarian reasoning and actions.
  • Gender-specific functional organization of the VPC may underlie observed differences in moral and social behaviors.