The right temporoparietal junction during a cooperation dilemma: An rTMS study

Cooperation enhances interpersonal communication and nurtures society. However, efforts to socially cooperate may often evoke conflict. Individuals selfishly pursue a greater reward or success by exploiting the of other individuals taking unnecessary risk oneself. Such cooperation dilemma is highly prevalent in real life; thus, it has been studied various disciplines. Although published functional magnetic resonance imaging studies have shown involvement right temporoparietal junction (TPJ) resolving through cooperation, causal relationship between two rarely explored. Hence, we investigated this issue combining repetitive transcranial stimulation with priority game task (modified snowdrift game). In task, participants opponent players jointly faced problem whereby their collaboration was anticipated defuse situation. This conflicted choice participant's self-interest that more rewarding but risky. We further included conditions without explicit social cues using figures describing elderly/pregnant passengers opponent's car, measured participants' prosocial traits examine any cue-induced effect as well personality-cooperation relationship, respectively. The ratio not statistically different both no-cue with-cue sham inhibitory continuous theta burst (cTBS). after cTBS, condition, strength association empathy decreased significantly. These results add our knowledge about TPJ's role cognition, which be extraordinarily complex. topic deserving examination.