People who have damage to a specific part of their brains are more likely to be impulsive, and new research has found that damage also makes them more likely to be influenced by other people.

In a new study published in PLOS Biology, a research team found that damage to distinct parts of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) was linked to being influenced by impulsive decision-making by others, while another region was causally linked with choosing a smaller reward earlier rather than waiting for a larger prize.

The team from the University of Birmingham, University of Oxford and Julius-Maximilians-University Würzburg worked with participants with brain damage to assess whether they were more likely to be influenced by other people’s preferences.