Dr Lei Zhang | Multiple facets of social influence in goal-directed learning

One of the main challenges in decision neuroscience originates from the

fact that humans do not make decisions alone, but rather, are influenced by

their social environment. However, few studies have inspected the

underlying neurocomputational processes. In an fMRI study, we examine how

social influence affects individuals’ choice and confidence, with a novel

goal-directed learning paradigm that allows multiple players to interact

with each other. In a follow-up TMS study, we aim to establish the causal

association between brain regions and social influence. Together, these

data provide a comprehensive behavioral and neurocomputational mechanism of

social influence in goal-directed learning.