Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Cognitive dissonance theory suggests that our preferences are modulated by the mere act of choosing. A choice between two similarly valued alternatives creates psychological tension (cognitive dissonance) that is reduced by a postdecisional reevaluation of the alternatives. We measured EEG of human subjects during rest and free-choice paradigm. Our study demonstrates that choices associated with stronger cognitive dissonance trigger a larger negative frontocentral evoked response similar to error-related negativity, which has in turn been implicated in general performance monitoring. Furthermore, the amplitude of the evoked response is correlated with the reevaluation of the alternatives. We also found a link between individual neural dynamics (long-range temporal correlations) of the frontocentral cortices during rest and follow-up neural and behavioral effects of cognitive dissonance. Individuals with stronger restingstate long-range temporal correlations demonstrated a greater postdecisional reevaluation of the alternatives and larger evoked brain responses associated with stronger cognitive dissonance. Thus, our results suggest that cognitive dissonance is reflected in both restingstate and choice-related activity of the prefrontal cortex as part of the general performance-monitoring circuitry.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 5074-5083 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Journal of Neuroscience |
Volume | 37 |
Issue number | 20 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 17 May 2017 |
ID: 95022988