Thursday, January 30, 2014

Scientists Discover Specific Brain Region Controlling Compliance to Social Norms

Neurological scientists in Zurich have been able to discover one unique part of human brain that controls the compliances with social norms. Even more important discovery was that knowledge base on social norms can be substantially improved using brain stimulation process. These findings may have far reaching consequences throwing light on hitherto less explored areas of brain control system. According to Christian Ruff, Ernst Fehr, and Giuseppe Ugazio of Zurich University, the lateral prefrontal cortex has a vital role in deciding norm compliance by human brain. To establish this they used “trancranial direct current stimulation” technique sending weak electric currents to related parts of human brain. “We discovered that the decision to follow the fairness norm, whether voluntarily or under threat of sanctions, can be directly influenced by neural stimulation in the prefrontal cortex”, says Professor Ruff. Accuracy of the theory was established by the fact that with brain stimulation the normative behavior of the patients in research changed considerably.

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