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Using a combination of cathodal high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) and computational modeling, we examined how cathodal stimulation, preliminarily simulated with SimNIBS, affects the retrieval of alternative strategies in the task that constantly provokes exploration-exploitation dilemmas. A comparison of resting-state recordings with functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) before and after stimulation did not reveal any physiological effect of HD-tDCS. Furthermore, there was no significant difference in participants\u2019 exploratory behavior between the sham and cathodal groups. These results indicate that the employed HD-tDCS protocol may not sufficiently influence FPC function, despite preliminary tDCS simulations with SimNIBS, calling for further refinement of the HD-tDCS protocol used in future research to elucidate the causal role of the FPC in decision-making under uncertainty.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-025-22016-z","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,31]],"date-time":"2025-10-31T12:12:35Z","timestamp":1761912755000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["No effect of preliminarily simulated cathodal HD-tDCS on the frontopolar cortex in the exploration-exploitation task"],"prefix":"10.1038","volume":"15","author":[{"given":"Viktor","family":"Timokhov","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Andrey","family":"Timashkov","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Oksana","family":"Zinchenko","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,31]]},"reference":[{"key":"22016_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Sutton, R. 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