Continuous Theta Burst Stimulation Over the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex and the Pre-SMA Alter Drift Rate and Response Thresholds Respectively During Perceptual Decision-Making

- What is the contribution of DLPFC and pre-SMA to perceptual decision-making?
- Two versions of the moving dots task were used.
- cTBS over the right DLPFC, pre-SMA and sham stimulation was applied.
- Right DLPFC cTBS changed drift rate as a function of task difficulty.
- Pre-SMA cTBS modified boundary separation when accuracy was emphasized.

BackgroundThe speed-accuracy trade-off (SAT) refers to the balancing of speed versus accuracy during decision-making. SAT is very commonly investigated with perceptual decision-making tasks such as the moving dots task (MDT). The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and the pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA) are two brain regions considered to be involved in the control of SAT.Objectives/hypothesesThe study tested whether the DLPFC and the pre-SMA play an essential role in the control of SAT. We hypothesized that continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) over the right DLPFC would primarily alter the rate of accumulation of evidence, whereas stimulation of the pre-SMA would influence the threshold for reaching a decision.MethodsFifteen (5 females; mean age = 30, SD =5.40) healthy volunteers participated in the study. We used two versions of the MDT and cTBS over the right DLPFC, pre-SMA and sham stimulation. The drift diffusion model was fit to the behavioural data (reaction time and error rate) in order to calculate the drift rate, boundary separation (threshold) and non-decision time.ResultscTBS over the right DLPFC decreased the rate of accumulation of evidence (i.e. the drift rate from the diffusion model) in high (0.35 and 0.5) but not in low coherence trials. cTBS over the pre-SMA changed the boundary separation/threshold required to reach a decision on accuracy, but not on speed trials.ConclusionsThe results suggest for the first time that both the DLPFC and the pre-SMA make essential but distinct contributions to the modulation of SAT.