@article{ref1,
title="Neural substrates of norm compliance in perceptual decisions",
journal="Scientific reports",
year="2018",
author="Toelch, U. and Pooresmaeili, A. and Dolan, R. J.",
volume="8",
number="1",
pages="e3315-e3315",
abstract="Societal norms exert a powerful influence on our decisions. Behaviours motivated by norms, however, do not always concur with the responses mandated by decision relevant information potentially generating a conflict. To probe the interplay between normative and informational influences, we examined how prosocial norms impact on perceptual decisions subjects made in the context of a simultaneous presentation of social information. Participants displayed a bias in their perceptual decisions towards that mandated by social information. However, normative prescriptions modulated this bias bi-directionally depending on whether norms mandated a decision in accord or contrary to the contextual social information. At a neural level, the addition of a norms increased activity in prefrontal cortex and modulated functional connectivity between prefrontal and parietal areas. The bi-directional effect of our norms was captured by differential activations when participants decided against the social information. When norms indicated a decision in line with social information, non-compliance modulated lateral prefrontal cortex activity. By contrast, when norms mandated a decision against social information norm compliance increased activity in the anterior cingulate cortex. Hence, social norms changed the balance between a reliance on perceptual and social information by modulating brain activity in regions associated with response inhibition and conflict monitoring.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="2045-2322",
doi="10.1038/s41598-018-21583-8",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-21583-8"
}