Scientists have discovered a “center fairness” in the brain and learned to manage it
MOSCOW, 10 APR — RIA Novosti. Swiss and American neuroscientists have discovered a particular area of the cerebral cortex, stimulation of which causes a person to behave more honest than he was accustomed to do, according to a paper published in the journal PNAS.
Raff and his colleagues for several years trying to understand what parts of the cortex and deep layers of the human brain are responsible for different forms of social or antisocial behavior. For example, in 2013, they found that a certain area in the prefrontal cortex of the brain is a kind of “heart of obedience”, the stimulation of which causes a person to obey social norms.
In his new work of raff and his colleagues invited volunteers to play a gambling game invented by scientists specifically to check the integrity. The participants had to throw a normal dice 10 times and tell the experimenter what numbers they had. At the same time on the monitor was displayed a winning combination of three numbers, the loss of any of which scientists were paid nine francs to the player.
Neither scientists nor the other participants could not see which combinations were able to knock that left a lot of room for cheating. Accordingly, dishonest players could fearlessly report that they almost always fall winning options, and scientists pretended not to notice anything.
Actually, the fact of cheating to install was not difficult — at the fair play, the number of correct answers was close to five in accordance with the laws of statistics. If this indicator is deviated in the direction of large numbers, it was always implied that the player is cheating.
Watching the activity of several such “crooks” and honest players, the researchers found that the top and right side of the prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is a special area included in a time when people took the decision to act honestly. Opening it, team Raffa decided to check what happens if you stimulate it with electric current or, conversely, to suppress its activity.
As shown by this experiment, the volunteers became much more honest after stimulation of this area — on average, they started talking about 5-6 successful rolls, not 7-8, as it was before “therapy.” This, however, did not touch the most hardened “crooks” that scientists associated with the fact that these players are not considered cheating something shameful.
Interestingly, the reverse stimulation did not increase the desire to cheat, that a team Raffa relates to the fact that the level of fraud was very high, and he actually had nowhere to grow. In addition, the suppression of the activity of the brain using electrical current is not as predictable and stable as stimulation that could reduce the force of such effect.
As scientists hope that further development of this technology can help in the rehabilitation of offenders and help to reduce the level of corruption on Earth.
Current UN estimates, the share of bribes and various forms of bribery accounts for about 5% of world GDP, or about a trillion dollars.
On the other hand, as noted by Michel Marechal (Marechal Michel), a colleague of Raffa at the University, similar conclusions can be met with hostility by psychologists, since the presence of such a “zone of integrity” and a different activity level in the minds of volunteers suggests that the propensity to commit crime depends mainly on biological factors. This, in turn, casts doubt on all modern ideas of free will and to what extent man is responsible for his actions.