Framing susceptibility in a risky choice game is altered by galvanic vestibular stimulation

Nora Preuss,Rene Müri,Fred W Mast,Roger Kalla

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-02909-4

Abstract

Recent research provides evidence that galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS) has a modulating effect on somatosensory perception and spatial cognition. However, other vestibular stimulation techniques have induced changes in affective control and decision making. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of GVS on framing susceptibility in a risky-choice game. The participants were to decide between a safe and a risky option. The safe option was framed either positively or negatively. During the task, the participants were exposed to either left anodal/right cathodal GVS, right anodal/left cathodal GVS, or sham stimulation (control condition). While left anodal/right cathodal GVS activated more right-hemispheric vestibular brain areas, right anodal/left cathodal GVS resulted in more bilateral activation. We observed increased framing susceptibility during left anodal/right cathodal GVS, but no change in framing susceptibility during right anodal/left cathodal GVS. We propose that GVS results in increased reliance on the affect heuristic by means of activation of cortical and subcortical vestibular-emotional brain structures and that this effect is modulated by the lateralization of the vestibular cortex.

Highlights

In this study, we were able to demonstrate the influence of GVS on emotional processes and risky decision making
Left anodal/right cathodal GVS (Experiment 1) had an enhancing effect on the framing susceptibility whereas right anodal/left cathodal GVS exerted no influence on framing susceptibility
This finding is in accordance with our hypothesis that left anodal/right cathodal GVS would result in more pronounced right-hemispheric activation of the vestibular network and that right anodal/left cathodal GVS would result in less lateralized activation of vestibular projection areas

Summary

Introduction

We were able to demonstrate the influence of GVS on emotional processes and risky decision making. Previous studies had shown that vestibular stimulation by means of CVS has an effect on affective control and mood[7], decision making[8], unrealistic optimism[9], and on manic symptom severity[4]. Experimental studies using GVS to investigate cognitive and emotional processes are still scarce. Researchers have mainly examined the influence of GVS on bodily awareness[4, 5], mental transformation abilities[32], (hemi-) spatial attention[33] and visual memory recall[34, 35]. The results of this study provide first evidence that GVS may serve as an effective tool to better investigate the overlap between cognitive and affective neuroscience

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Discussion

Conclusion