Anodal tDCS over the medial prefrontal cortex enhances behavioral adaptation 
after punishments during reversal learning through increased updating of 
unchosen choice options

Panitz, Martin; Deserno, Lorenz; Kaminski, Elisabeth; Villringer, Arno; Sehm, Bernhard; Schlagenhauf, Florian

doi:10.1093/texcom/tgac006

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Anodal tDCS over the medial prefrontal cortex enhances behavioral adaptation after punishments during reversal learning through increased updating of unchosen choice options

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Panitz, Martin
Department Neurology, MPI for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Max Planck Society;
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité University Medicine Berlin, Germany;

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Deserno, Lorenz
Department Neurology, MPI for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Max Planck Society;
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, University Hospital Würzburg, Germany;
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, TU Dresden, Germany;

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Kaminski, Elisabeth
Department Neurology, MPI for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Max Planck Society;
Department of Human Movement Neuroscience, Faculty of Sport Science, University of Leipzig, Germany;

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Villringer, Arno
Department Neurology, MPI for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Max Planck Society;
Clinic for Cognitive Neurology, University of Leipzig, Germany;
MindBrainBody Institute, Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt University Berlin, Germany;

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Sehm, Bernhard
Department Neurology, MPI for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Max Planck Society;
Department of Neurology, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany;

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Schlagenhauf, Florian
Department Neurology, MPI for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Max Planck Society;
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité University Medicine Berlin, Germany;

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Citation

Panitz, M., Deserno, L., Kaminski, E., Villringer, A., Sehm, B., & Schlagenhauf, F. (2022). Anodal tDCS over the medial prefrontal cortex enhances behavioral adaptation after punishments during reversal learning through increased updating of unchosen choice options. Cerebral Cortex Communications, 3(1): tgac006. doi:10.1093/texcom/tgac006.

Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-000B-457E-B

Abstract

The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is thought to be central for flexible behavioral adaptation. However, the causal relationship between mPFC activity and this behavior is incompletely understood. We investigated whether transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the mPFC alters flexible behavioral adaptation during reward-based decision-making, targeting Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) coordinates X = -8, Y = 62, Z = 12, which has previously been associated with impaired behavioral adaptation in alcohol-dependent patients. Healthy human participants (n = 61) received either anodal (n = 30) or cathodal (n = 31) tDCS versus sham tDCS while performing a reversal learning task. To assess the mechanisms of reinforcement learning (RL) underlying our behavioral observations, we applied computational models that varied with respect to the updating of the unchosen choice option. We observed that anodal stimulation over the mPFC induced increased choice switching after punishments compared with sham stimulation, whereas cathodal stimulation showed no effect on participants' behavior compared with sham stimulation. RL revealed increased updating of the unchosen choice option under anodal as compared with sham stimulation, which accounted well for the increased tendency to switch after punishments. Our findings provide a potential model for tDCS interventions in conditions related to flexible behavioral adaptation, such as addiction.