The dorsomedial prefrontal cortex promotes self-control by inhibiting the egocentric perspective
Chen Jin,
Ying Li,
Yin Yin,
Tenda Ma,
Wei Hong,
Yan Liu,
Nan Li,
Xinyue Zhang,
Jia-Hong Gao,
Xiaochu Zhang,
Rujing Zha
Affiliations
Chen Jin
Department of Radiology, the First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Science and Medicine and Department of Psychology, School of Humanities & Social Science, University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei, 230027, China; Department of Philosophy, School of Humanities, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
Ying Li
Department of Radiology, the First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Science and Medicine and Department of Psychology, School of Humanities & Social Science, University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei, 230027, China
Yin Yin
Department of Radiology, the First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Science and Medicine and Department of Psychology, School of Humanities & Social Science, University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei, 230027, China
Tenda Ma
Department of Radiology, the First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Science and Medicine and Department of Psychology, School of Humanities & Social Science, University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei, 230027, China
Wei Hong
Department of Radiology, the First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Science and Medicine and Department of Psychology, School of Humanities & Social Science, University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei, 230027, China
Yan Liu
Application Technology Center of Physical Therapy to Brain Disorders, Institute of Advanced Technology, University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230027, China
Nan Li
Department of Radiology, the First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Science and Medicine and Department of Psychology, School of Humanities & Social Science, University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei, 230027, China
Xinyue Zhang
Department of Radiology, the First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Science and Medicine and Department of Psychology, School of Humanities & Social Science, University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei, 230027, China
Jia-Hong Gao
McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Xiaochu Zhang
Department of Radiology, the First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Science and Medicine and Department of Psychology, School of Humanities & Social Science, University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei, 230027, China; Application Technology Center of Physical Therapy to Brain Disorders, Institute of Advanced Technology, University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230027, China; Institute of Health and Medicine, Hefei Comprehensive Science Center, Hefei, 230071, China; Business School, Guizhou Education University, Guiyang 550018, China; Corresponding authors at: University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.
Rujing Zha
Department of Radiology, the First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Science and Medicine and Department of Psychology, School of Humanities & Social Science, University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei, 230027, China; Key Laboratory of Philosophy and Social Science of Anhui Province on Adolescent Mental Health and Crisis Intelligence Intervention, Hefei Normal University, Hefei, China; Key Laboratory of Brain-Machine Intelligence for Information Behavior – Ministry of Education, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai, China; Corresponding authors at: University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.
The dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) plays a crucial role in social cognitive functions, including perspective-taking. Although perspective-taking has been linked to self-control, the mechanism by which the dmPFC might facilitate self-control remains unclear. Using the multimodal neuroimaging dataset from the Human Connectome Project (Study 1, N =978 adults), we established a reliable association between the dmPFC and self-control, as measured by discounting rate—the tendency to prefer smaller, immediate rewards over larger, delayed ones. Experiments (Study 2, N = 36 adults) involving high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation showed that anodal stimulation of the dmPFC reduces the discounting of delayed rewards and decreases the congruency effect in egocentric but not allocentric perspective in the visual perspective-taking tasks. These findings suggest that the dmPFC promotes self-control by inhibiting the egocentric perspective, offering new insights into the neural underpinnings of self-control and perspective-taking, and opening new avenues for interventions targeting disorders characterized by impaired self-regulation.
