When giving is good: ventromedial prefrontal cortex activation for others' intentions

One step too far: social cerebellum in norm-violating navigation

Social norms are pivotal in guiding social interactions. The current study investigated the potential contribution of the posterior cerebellum, a critical region involved in perceiving and comprehending the sequential dynamics of social actions, in detecting actions that either conform to or deviate from social norms. Participants engaged in a goal-directed task in which they observed others navigating towards a goal. The trajectories demonstrated either norm-violating (trespassing forbidden zones) or norm-following behaviors (avoiding forbidden zones). Results revealed that observing social norm-violating behaviors engaged the bilateral posterior cerebellar Crus 2 and the right temporoparietal junction (TPJ) from the mentalizing network, and the parahippocampal gyrus (PHG) to a greater extent than observing norm-following behaviors. These mentalizing regions were also activated when comparing social sequences against non-social and non-sequential control conditions. Reproducing norm-violating social trajectories observed earlier, activated the left cerebellar Crus 2 and the right PHG compared to reproducing norm-following trajectories. These findings illuminate the neural mechanisms in the cerebellum associated with detecting norm transgressions during social navigation, emphasizing the role of the posterior cerebellum in detecting and signaling deviations from anticipated sequences.

The psychological, computational, and neural foundations of indebtedness

Receiving a favor from another person may induce a negative feeling of indebtedness for the beneficiary. In this study, we explore these hidden costs by developing and validating a conceptual model of indebtedness across three studies that combine a large-scale online questionnaire, an interpersonal game, computational modeling, and neuroimaging. Our model captures how individuals perceive the altruistic and strategic intentions of the benefactor. These inferences produce distinct feelings of guilt and obligation that together comprise indebtedness and motivate reciprocity. Perceived altruistic intentions convey care and communal concern and are associated with activity in insula, ventromedial prefrontal cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, while inferred strategic intentions convey expectations of future reciprocity and are associated with activation in temporal parietal junction and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. We further develop a neural utility model of indebtedness using multivariate patterns of brain activity that captures the tradeoff between these feelings and reliably predicts reciprocity behavior.

The role of prefrontal cortex and temporoparietal junction in interpersonal comfort and emotional approach

Our perception of physical distance to individuals and stimuli is influenced by our mental distance and relatedness. The present study aimed to investigate the role of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), and right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) in interpersonal comfortable distance and approach behaviors towards emotional stimuli. Twenty healthy volunteers received brain stimulation in four separate sessions with a one-week interval, including anodal left dlPFC, anodal right vmPFC, anodal rTPJ, and sham condition, with an extracranial return electrode. Our results revealed an increase in interpersonal distance during anodal rTPJ stimulation and a decrease in distance to positive pictures during anodal vmPFC stimulation. These findings suggest that the rTPJ plays a role in the perceptual component of self-other distancing, while the vmPFC is involved in approaching positive emotions.

Blame and Praise cross-culturally: An fMRI investigation into causal attribution and moral judgment

People from independent cultures are more likely to causally explain others' behaviors by their disposition [vs. situation] compared to those from interdependent cultures. However, few studies have directly examined how these differences in attribution shape individuals' moral judgment, nor the underlying neural mechanisms of this process. Aiming to address these questions, in the scanner, participants rated the blameworthiness or praiseworthiness of protagonists who did either a negative or positive behavior, respectively. These behaviors were pretested and found to be perceived as dispositionally or situationally caused to different extents on average. Regardless of their self-construal, participants showed enhanced dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) activity in response to the behaviors that were evaluated as more situationally caused on average. Importantly, relatively independent participants reduced their blame for the behaviors that they showed greater dmPFC activity to. Relatively interdependent participants reduced blame for the behaviors that they themselves inferred more situational causes for, but dmPFC activity did not explain their blame. These findings suggest that while dmPFC might support relatively independent participants' effortful consideration of situational contributors to a behavior to make moral judgments, relatively interdependent participants might engage in this process automatically and relied less on dmPFC recruitment.

Culture, theory-of-mind, and morality: How independent and interdependent minds make moral judgments

Although the investigation of the neural mechanisms of morality has increased in recent years, the neural underpinnings of cultural variations in judgments of morality is understudied. In this paper, we propose that the well-established cultural differences in two cognitive processes, consideration of mental state and causal attribution, would lead to differences in moral judgment. Specifically, North Americans rely heavily on the mental state of a protagonist and dispositional attributions, whereas East Asians focus more on situational attributions and place less emphasis on the mental state of a protagonist. These differences would be accounted for by activity in brain regions implicated in thinking about others' minds, or theory-of-mind (ToM), which would underlie the cultural shaping of moral judgment. This proposed cultural neuroscience approach may broaden the scope of morality research, better predict moral behavior, and reduce disparities in diverse groups' moral judgment.

Distinctive roles of mPFC subregions in forming impressions and guiding social interaction based on others' social behaviour

People can quickly form impressions of others from their social behaviour, which can guide their future social interactions. This study investigated how the type and timing of others' social decisions affect the impression formation and social interactions. In each trial, participants watched a responder's decision in an ultimatum game, decided whether to choose the responder as their next partner for proposer or responder and reported the perceived warmth, competence and likability of the responder. Participants preferred responders who accepted (i.e. accepters) unfair offers for the responder and those who rejected (i.e. rejecters) unfair offers for the proposer in their next ultimatum game, and the rostral medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) activity encoded such a strategic context-dependent valuation when choosing partners. Slow rejecters were perceived as warmer than fast rejecters, which was mirrored by the anterior mid-cingulate cortex activity when watching others' decisions, possibly detecting and resolving conflicting impressions. Finally, those who perceived accepters vs rejecters as warmer showed higher ventral mPFC responses to accepters vs rejecters when choosing a partner, regardless of the context. The present study suggests that distinctive subregions of the mPFC may be differentially involved in forming impressions and guiding social interactions with others based on their social behaviours.

Prefrontal connectomics: from anatomy to human imaging

The fundamental importance of prefrontal cortical connectivity to information processing and, therefore, disorders of cognition, emotion, and behavior has been recognized for decades. Anatomic tracing studies in animals have formed the basis for delineating the direct monosynaptic connectivity, from cells of origin, through axon trajectories, to synaptic terminals. Advances in neuroimaging combined with network science have taken the lead in developing complex wiring diagrams or connectomes of the human brain. A key question is how well these magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-derived networks and hubs reflect the anatomic "hard wiring" first proposed to underlie the distribution of information for large-scale network interactions. In this review, we address this challenge by focusing on what is known about monosynaptic prefrontal cortical connections in non-human primates and how this compares to MRI-derived measurements of network organization in humans. First, we outline the anatomic cortical connections and pathways for each prefrontal cortex (PFC) region. We then review the available MRI-based techniques for indirectly measuring structural and functional connectivity, and introduce graph theoretical methods for analysis of hubs, modules, and topologically integrative features of the connectome. Finally, we bring these two approaches together, using specific examples, to demonstrate how monosynaptic connections, demonstrated by tract-tracing studies, can directly inform understanding of the composition of PFC nodes and hubs, and the edges or pathways that connect PFC to cortical and subcortical areas.

Meta-learning, social cognition and consciousness in brains and machines

The intersection between neuroscience and artificial intelligence (AI) research has created synergistic effects in both fields. While neuroscientific discoveries have inspired the development of AI architectures, new ideas and algorithms from AI research have produced new ways to study brain mechanisms. A well-known example is the case of reinforcement learning (RL), which has stimulated neuroscience research on how animals learn to adjust their behavior to maximize reward. In this review article, we cover recent collaborative work between the two fields in the context of meta-learning and its extension to social cognition and consciousness. Meta-learning refers to the ability to learn how to learn, such as learning to adjust hyperparameters of existing learning algorithms and how to use existing models and knowledge to efficiently solve new tasks. This meta-learning capability is important for making existing AI systems more adaptive and flexible to efficiently solve new tasks. Since this is one of the areas where there is a gap between human performance and current AI systems, successful collaboration should produce new ideas and progress. Starting from the role of RL algorithms in driving neuroscience, we discuss recent developments in deep RL applied to modeling prefrontal cortex functions. Even from a broader perspective, we discuss the similarities and differences between social cognition and meta-learning, and finally conclude with speculations on the potential links between intelligence as endowed by model-based RL and consciousness. For future work we highlight data efficiency, autonomy and intrinsic motivation as key research areas for advancing both fields.

Shifting prosocial intuitions: neurocognitive evidence for a value-based account of group-based cooperation

Cooperation is necessary for solving numerous social issues, including climate change, effective governance and economic stability. Value-based decision models contend that prosocial tendencies and social context shape people’s preferences for cooperative or selfish behavior. Using functional neuroimaging and computational modeling, we tested these predictions by comparing activity in brain regions previously linked to valuation and executive function during decision-making—the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), respectively. Participants played Public Goods Games with students from fictitious universities, where social norms were selfish or cooperative. Prosocial participants showed greater vmPFC activity when cooperating and dlPFC-vmPFC connectivity when acting selfishly, whereas selfish participants displayed the opposite pattern. Norm-sensitive participants showed greater dlPFC-vmPFC connectivity when defying group norms. Modeling expectations of cooperation was associated with activity near the right temporoparietal junction. Consistent with value-based models, this suggests that prosocial tendencies and contextual norms flexibly determine whether people prefer cooperation or defection.

Enhancing models of social and strategic decision making with process tracing and neural data

Every decision we take is accompanied by a characteristic pattern of response delay, gaze position, pupil dilation, and neural activity. Nevertheless, many models of social decision making neglect the corresponding process tracing data and focus exclusively on the final choice outcome. Here, we argue that this is a mistake, as the use of process data can help to build better models of human behavior, create better experiments, and improve policy interventions. Specifically, such data allow us to unlock the "black box" of the decision process and evaluate the mechanisms underlying our social choices. Using these data, we can directly validate latent model variables, arbitrate between competing personal motives, and capture information processing strategies. These benefits are especially valuable in social science, where models must predict multi-faceted decisions that are taken in varying contexts and are based on many different types of information. This article is categorized under: Economics > Interactive Decision-Making Neuroscience > Cognition Psychology > Reasoning and Decision Making.

Links Between the Neurobiology of Oxytocin and Human Musicality

The human species possesses two complementary, yet distinct, universal communication systems—language and music. Functional imaging studies have revealed that some core elements of these two systems are processed in closely related brain regions, but there are also clear differences in brain circuitry that likely underlie differences in functionality. Music affects many aspects of human behavior, especially in encouraging prosocial interactions and promoting trust and cooperation within groups of culturally compatible but not necessarily genetically related individuals. Music, presumably via its impact on the limbic system, is also rewarding and motivating, and music can facilitate aspects of learning and memory. In this review these special characteristics of music are considered in light of recent research on the neuroscience of the peptide oxytocin, a hormone that has both peripheral and central actions, that plays a role in many complex human behaviors, and whose expression has recently been reported to be affected by music-related activities. I will first briefly discuss what is currently known about the peptide’s physiological actions on neurons and its interactions with other neuromodulator systems, then summarize recent advances in our knowledge of the distribution of oxytocin and its receptor (OXTR) in the human brain. Next, the complex links between oxytocin and various social behaviors in humans are considered. First, how endogenous oxytocin levels relate to individual personality traits, and then how exogenous, intranasal application of oxytocin affects behaviors such as trust, empathy, reciprocity, group conformity, anxiety, and overall social decision making under different environmental conditions. It is argued that many of these characteristics of oxytocin biology closely mirror the diverse effects that music has on human cognition and emotion, providing a link to the important role music has played throughout human evolutionary history and helping to explain why music remains a special prosocial human asset. Finally, it is suggested that there is a potential synergy in combining oxytocin- and music-based strategies to improve general health and aid in the treatment of various neurological dysfunctions.

Neural representations of honesty predict future trust behavior

Theoretical accounts propose honesty as a central determinant of trustworthiness impressions and trusting behavior. However, behavioral and neural evidence on the relationships between honesty and trust is missing. Here, combining a novel paradigm that successfully induces trustworthiness impressions with functional MRI and multivariate analyses, we demonstrate that honesty-based trustworthiness is represented in the posterior cingulate cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and intraparietal sulcus. Crucially, brain signals in these regions predict individual trust in a subsequent social interaction with the same partner. Honesty recruited the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC), and stronger functional connectivity between the VMPFC and temporoparietal junction during honesty encoding was associated with higher trust in the subsequent interaction. These results suggest that honesty signals in the VMPFC are integrated into trustworthiness beliefs to inform present and future social behaviors. These findings improve our understanding of the neural representations of an individual’s social character that guide behaviors during interpersonal interactions.

We tend to be more trusting of people who we know to be honest. Here, the authors show using fMRI that honesty-based trustworthiness is represented in the posterior cingulate cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and intraparietal sulcus, and predicts subsequent trust decisions.

Neurocomputational mechanisms at play when weighing concerns for extrinsic rewards, moral values, and social image

Humans not only value extrinsic monetary rewards but also their own morality and their image in the eyes of others. Yet violating moral norms is frequent, especially when people know that they are not under scrutiny. When moral values and monetary payoffs are at odds, how does the brain weigh the benefits and costs of moral and monetary payoffs? Here, using a neurocomputational model of decision value (DV) and functional (f)MRI, we investigated whether different brain systems are engaged when deciding whether to earn money by contributing to a “bad cause” and when deciding whether to sacrifice money to contribute to a “good cause,” both when such choices were made privately or in public. Although similar principles of DV computations were used to solve these dilemmas, they engaged 2 distinct valuation systems. When weighing monetary benefits and moral costs, people were willing to trade their moral values in exchange for money, an effect accompanied by DV computation engaging the anterior insula and the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC). In contrast, weighing monetary costs against compliance with one’s moral values engaged the ventral putamen. Moreover, regardless of the type of dilemma, a brain network including the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), anterior insula, and the right temporoparietal junction (TJP) was more engaged in public than in private settings. Together, these findings identify how the brain processes three sources of motivation: extrinsic rewards, moral values, and concerns for image.

Distinct brain systems are engaged when weighing whether to earn money by contributing to a ‘bad cause’ and when weighing whether to lose money to contribute to a ‘good cause,’ regardless of whether such choices are made privately or in public.

Don't you want me, baby? Cardiac and electrocortical concomitants of romantic interest and rejection

Online dating has become a very popular way to find a romantic partner. In the present study, we examined whether romantic interest and rejection in such a setting would evoke differential electrocortical and cardiac responses. For this purpose a database was created, similar to a dating website, where the participants' personal information and photos were placed. Heterosexual, single participants (N = 61) evaluated the profiles of opposite-sex potential romantic partners and decided whether they would like to date this person or not. Subsequently, participants passively viewed (34 analyzable volunteers participated in the EEG session; 10 male; mean age = 20) the pictures of the potential partners together with their own judgment about the "dateability" of the potential partner, and the potential partner's judgment of the "dateability" of the participant. After viewing the pictures participants received the email addresses to contact their matches. Electrocortical and cardiac responses to these "match" or "non-match" judgments were measured. A significantly larger P3 response was found when participants received a positive evaluation as compared to negative evaluations. This is in line with an explanation in terms of reward. A significantly larger cardiac deceleration was found when participants received a negative evaluation as compared to positive evaluations, which is in line with an explanation in terms of social pain. Findings are discussed in terms of activation of different parts of the anterior cingulate cortex.

Modeling the Human-Robot Trust Phenomenon

This article presents a conceptual framework for human-robot trust which uses computational representations inspired by game theory to represent a definition of trust, derived from social psychology. This conceptual framework generates several testable hypotheses related to human-robot trust. This article examines these hypotheses and a series of experiments we have conducted which both provide support for and also conflict with our framework for trust. We also discuss the methodological challenges associated with investigating trust. The article concludes with a description of the important areas for future research on the topic of human-robot trust.

Not on my team: Medial prefrontal cortex responses to ingroup fusion and unfair monetary divisions

OBJECTIVE

People are highly attuned to fairness, with people willingly suffering personal costs to prevent others benefitting from unfair acts. Are fairness judgments influenced by group alignments? A new theory posits that we favor ingroups and denigrate members of rival outgroups when our personal identity is fused to a group. Although the mPFC has been separately implicated in group membership and fairness processing, it is unclear whether group alignments affect medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) activity in response to fairness. Here, we examine the contribution of different regions of the mPFC to processing from ingroup and outgroup members and test whether its response differs depending on how fused we are to an ingroup.

METHODS

Subjects performed rounds of the Ultimatum Game, being offered fair or unfair divisions of money from supporters of the same soccer team (ingroup), the fiercest rival (outgroup) or neutral individuals whilst undergoing functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI).

RESULTS

Strikingly, people willingly suffered personal costs to prevent outgroup members benefitting from both unfair and fair offers. Activity across dorsal and ventral (VMPFC) portions of the mPFC reflected an interaction between fairness and group membership. VMPFC activity in particular was consistent with it coding one's fusion to a group, with the fairness by group membership interaction correlating with the extent that the responder's identity was fused to the ingroup.

CONCLUSIONS

The influence of fusion on social behavior therefore seems to be linked to processing in the VMPFC.

Contributions of the Medial Prefrontal Cortex to Social Influence in Economic Decision-Making

Economic decisions are guided by highly subjective reward valuations (SVs). Often these SVs are over-ridden when individuals conform to social norms. Yet, the neural mechanisms that underpin the distinct processing of such normative reward valuations (NVs) are poorly understood. The dorsomedial and ventromedial portions of the prefrontal cortex (dmPFC/vmPFC) are putatively key regions for processing social and economic information respectively. However, the contribution of these regions to economic decisions guided by social norms is unclear. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging and computational modeling we examine the neural mechanisms underlying the processing of SVs and NVs. Subjects (n = 15) indicated either their own economic preferences or made similar choices based on a social norm-learnt during a training session. We found that that the vmPFC and dmPFC make dissociable contributions to the processing of SV and NV. Regions of the dmPFC processed "only" the value of rewards when making normative choices. In contrast, we identify a novel mechanism in the vmPFC for the coding of value. This region signaled both subjective and normative valuations, but activity was scaled positively for SV and negatively for NV. These results highlight some of the key mechanisms that underpin conformity and social influence in economic decision-making.

Cooperative and Competitive Contextual Effects on Social Cognitive and Empathic Neural Responses

We aimed to differentiate the neural responses to cooperative and competitive contexts, which are the two of the most important social contexts in human society. Healthy male college students were asked to complete a Tetris-like task requiring mental rotation skills under individual, cooperative, and competitive contexts in an fMRI scanner. While the participants completed the task, pictures of others experiencing pain evoking emotional empathy randomly appeared to capture contextual effects on empathic neural responses. Behavioral results indicated that, in the presence of cooperation, participants solved the tasks more accurately and quickly than what they did when in the presence of competition. The fMRI results revealed activations in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) related to executive functions and theory of mind when participants performed the task under both cooperative and competitive contexts, whereas no activation of such areas was observed in the individual context. Cooperation condition exhibited stronger neural responses in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and dmPFC than competition condition. Competition condition, however, showed marginal neural responses in the cerebellum and anterior insular cortex (AIC). The two social contexts involved stronger empathic neural responses to other's pain than the individual context, but no substantial differences between cooperation and competition were present. Regions of interest analyses revealed that individual's trait empathy modulated the neural activity in the state empathy network, the AIC, and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) depending on the social context. These results suggest that cooperation improves task performance and activates neural responses associated with reward and mentalizing. Furthermore, the interaction between trait- and state-empathy was explored by correlation analyses between individual's trait empathy score and changing empathic brain activations along with the exposure to the cooperative and competitive social contexts.

Transforming Pain With Prosocial Meaning: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

OBJECTIVE

Contextual factors can transform how we experience pain, particularly if pain is associated with other positive outcomes. Here, we test a novel meaning-based intervention. Participants were given the opportunity to choose to receive pain on behalf of their romantic partners, situating pain experience in a positive, prosocial meaning context. We predicted that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), a key structure for pain regulation and generation of affective meaning, would mediate the transformation of pain experience by this prosocial interpersonal context.

METHODS

We studied fMRI activity and behavioral responses in 29 heterosexual female participants during (1) a baseline pain challenge and (2) a task in which participants decided to accept a self-selected number of additional pain trials to reduce pain in their male romantic partners ("accept-partner-pain" condition).

RESULTS

Enduring extra pain for the benefit of the romantic partner reduced pain-related unpleasantness (t = -2.54, p = .016) but not intensity, and increased positive thoughts (t = 3.60, p = .001) and pleasant feelings (t = 5.39, p < .0005). Greater willingness to accept the pain of one's partner predicted greater unpleasantness reductions (t = 3.94, p = .001) and increases in positive thoughts (r = .457, p = .013). The vmPFC showed significant increases (q < .05 FDR-corrected) in activation during accept-partner-pain, especially for women with greater willingness to relieve their partner's pain (t = 2.63, p = .014). Reductions in brain regions processing pain and aversive emotion significantly mediated reductions in pain unpleasantness (q < .05 FDR-corrected).

CONCLUSIONS

The vmPFC has a key role in transforming the meaning of pain, which is associated with a cascade of positive psychological and brain effects, including changes in affective meaning, value, and pain-specific neural circuits.

Brain responses to social norms: Meta-analyses of fMRI studies

Social norms have a critical role in everyday decision-making, as frequent interaction with others regulates our behavior. Neuroimaging studies show that social-based and fairness-related decision-making activates an inconsistent set of areas, which sometimes includes the anterior insula, anterior cingulate cortex, and others lateral prefrontal cortices. Social-based decision-making is complex and variability in findings may be driven by socio-cognitive activities related to social norms. To distinguish among social-cognitive activities related to social norms, we identified 36 eligible articles in the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) literature, which we separate into two categories (a) social norm representation and (b) norm violations. The majority of original articles (>60%) used tasks associated with fairness norms and decision-making, such as ultimatum game, dictator game, or prisoner's dilemma; the rest used tasks associated to violation of moral norms, such as scenarios and sentences of moral depravity ratings. Using quantitative meta-analyses, we report common and distinct brain areas that show concordance as a function of category. Specifically, concordance in ventromedial prefrontal regions is distinct to social norm representation processing, whereas concordance in right insula, dorsolateral prefrontal, and dorsal cingulate cortices is distinct to norm violation processing. We propose a neurocognitive model of social norms for healthy adults, which could help guide future research in social norm compliance and mechanisms of its enforcement.

Intention Modulates the Effect of Punishment Threat in Norm Enforcement via the Lateral Orbitofrontal Cortex

Although economic theories suggest that punishment threat is crucial for maintaining social norms, counterexamples are noted in which punishment threat hinders norm compliance. Such discrepancy may arise from the intention behind the threat: unintentionally introduced punishment threat facilitates, whereas intentionally introduced punishment threat hinders, norm compliance. Here, we combined a dictator game and fMRI to investigate how intention modulates the effect of punishment threat on norm compliance and the neural substrates of this modulation. We also investigated whether this modulation can be influenced by brain stimulation. Human participants divided an amount of money between themselves and a partner. The partner (intentionally) or a computer program (unintentionally) decided to retain or waive the right to punish the participant upon selfish distribution. Compared with the unintentional condition, participants allocated more when the partner intentionally waived the power of punishment, but less when the partner retained such power. The right lateral orbitofrontal cortex (rLOFC) showed higher activation when the partner waived compared with when the computer waived or when the partner retained the power. The functional connectivity between the rLOFC and the brain network associated with intention/mentalizing processing was predictive of the allocation difference induced by intention. Moreover, inhibition or activation of the rLOFC by brain stimulation decreased or increased, respectively, the participants' reliance on the partner's intention during monetary allocation. These findings demonstrate that the perceived intention of punishment threat plays a crucial role in norm compliance and that the LOFC is casually involved in the implementation of intention-based cooperative decisions.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT

Does punishment threat facilitate or hinder norm enforcement? So far, cognitive neuroscience research offers equivocal evidence. By directly manipulating the intention behind punishment threat, we demonstrate that intention modulates the effectiveness of punishment threat. Moreover, we show that inhibition or activation of the right lateral orbitofrontal cortex (rLOFC) decreased or increased the effect of punishment threat in the intentional context, but not in the unintentional context, suggesting the casual involvement of the rLOFC in intention-based cooperative decisions.

Common and distinct neural networks involved in fMRI studies investigating morality: an ALE meta-analysis

Morality is an important social construct necessary for understanding what is right and wrong. Neuroimaging studies investigating morality have used a wide variety of paradigms and implicated many different brain areas. Yet, it remains unclear whether differences amongst morality tasks are the cause for such heterogeneous findings. Therefore, in the present study, a series of activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analyses were conducted on 123 datasets (inclusive of 1963 participants) to address this question. The ALE meta-analyses revealed a series of common brain areas associated with all moral tasks, including medial prefrontal cortex, lateral orbitofrontal cortex, amygdala, temporoparietal junction, and precuneus. However, individual and contrast analyses also revealed unique networks associated with each moral modality, suggesting that different moral tasks recruit specialised brain regions.

Empathic Care and Distress: Predictive Brain Markers and Dissociable Brain Systems

Encountering another's suffering can elicit both empathic distress and empathic care-the warm desire to affiliate. It remains unclear whether these two feelings can be accurately and differentially predicted from neural activity and to what extent their neural substrates can be distinguished. We developed fMRI markers predicting moment-by-moment intensity levels of care and distress intensity while participants (n = 66) listened to true biographies describing human suffering. Both markers' predictions correlated strongly with self-report in out-of-sample participants (r = 0.59 and r = 0.63, p < 0.00001), and both markers predicted later trial-by-trial charitable donation amounts (p < 0.05). Empathic care was preferentially associated with nucleus accumbens and medial orbitofrontal cortex activity, whereas distress was preferentially associated with premotor and somatosensory cortical activity. In tests of marker specificity with an independent behavioral sample (n = 200), the empathic care marker was associated with a mixed-valence feeling state, whereas the empathic distress marker was specific to negative emotion.

Two Anatomically and Computationally Distinct Learning Signals Predict Changes to Stimulus-Outcome Associations in Hippocampus

Complex cognitive processes require sophisticated local processing but also interactions between distant brain regions. It is therefore critical to be able to study distant interactions between local computations and the neural representations they act on. Here we report two anatomically and computationally distinct learning signals in lateral orbitofrontal cortex (lOFC) and the dopaminergic ventral midbrain (VM) that predict trial-by-trial changes to a basic internal model in hippocampus. To measure local computations during learning and their interaction with neural representations, we coupled computational fMRI with trial-by-trial fMRI suppression. We find that suppression in a medial temporal lobe network changes trial-by-trial in proportion to stimulus-outcome associations. During interleaved choice trials, we identify learning signals that relate to outcome type in lOFC and to reward value in VM. These intervening choice feedback signals predicted the subsequent change to hippocampal suppression, suggesting a convergence of signals that update the flexible representation of stimulus-outcome associations.

The Measurement of Subjective Value and Its Relation to Contingent Valuation and Environmental Public Goods

Environmental public goods—including national parks, clean air/water, and ecosystem services—provide substantial benefits on a global scale. These goods have unique characteristics in that they are typically “nonmarket” goods, with values from both use and passive use that accrue to a large number of individuals both in current and future generations. In this study, we test the hypothesis that neural signals in areas correlated with subjective valuations for essentially all other previously studied categories of goods (ventromedial prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum) also correlate with environmental valuations. We use contingent valuation (CV) as our behavioral tool for measuring valuations of environmental public goods. CV is a standard stated preference approach that presents survey respondents with information on an issue and asks questions that help policymakers determine how much citizens are willing to pay for a public good or policy. We scanned human subjects while they viewed environmental proposals, along with three other classes of goods. The presentation of all four classes of goods yielded robust and similar patterns of temporally synchronized brain activation within attentional networks. The activations associated with the traditional classes of goods replicate previous correlations between neural activity in valuation areas and behavioral preferences. In contrast, CV-elicited values for environmental proposals did not correlate with brain activity at either the individual or population level. For a sub-population of participants, CV-elicited values were correlated with activity within the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, a region associated with cognitive control and shifting decision strategies. The results show that neural activity associated with the subjective valuation of environmental proposals differs profoundly from the neural activity associated with previously examined goods and preference measures.

Connectivity reveals relationship of brain areas for reward-guided learning and decision making in human and monkey frontal cortex

Reward-guided decision-making depends on a network of brain regions. Among these are the orbitofrontal and the anterior cingulate cortex. However, it is difficult to ascertain if these areas constitute anatomical and functional unities, and how these areas correspond between monkeys and humans. To address these questions we looked at connectivity profiles of these areas using resting-state functional MRI in 38 humans and 25 macaque monkeys. We sought brain regions in the macaque that resembled 10 human areas identified with decision making and brain regions in the human that resembled six macaque areas identified with decision making. We also used diffusion-weighted MRI to delineate key human orbital and medial frontal brain regions. We identified 21 different regions, many of which could be linked to particular aspects of reward-guided learning, valuation, and decision making, and in many cases we identified areas in the macaque with similar coupling profiles.

Spatio-temporal dynamics of kind versus hostile intentions in the human brain: An electrical neuroimaging study

Neuroscience research suggests that inferring neutral intentions of other people recruits a specific brain network within the inferior fronto-parietal action observation network as well as a putative social network including brain areas subserving theory of mind, such as the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), and also the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Recent studies on harmful intentions have refined this network by showing the specific involvement of the ACC, amygdala, and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) in early stages (within 200 ms) of information processing. However, the functional dynamics for kind intentions within and among these networks remains unclear. To address this question, we measured electrical brain activity from 18 healthy adult participants while they were performing an intention inference task with three different types of intentions: kind, hostile and non-interactive. Electrophysiological results revealed that kind intentions were characterized by significantly larger peak amplitudes of N2 over the frontal sites than those for hostile and non-interactive intentions. On the other hand, there were no significant differences between hostile and non-interactive intentions at N2. The source analysis suggested that the vicinity of the left cingulate gyrus contributed to the N2 effect by subtracting the kindness condition from the non-interactive condition within 250-350 ms. At a later stage (i.e., during the 270-500 ms epoch), the peak amplitude of the P3 over the parietal sites and the right hemisphere was significantly larger for hostile intentions compared to the kind and non-interactive intentions. No significant differences were observed at P3 between kind and non-interactive intentions. The source analysis showed that the vicinity of the left anterior cingulate cortex contributed to the P3 effect by subtracting the hostility condition from the non-interactive condition within 450-550 ms. The present study provides preliminary evidence of the spatio-temporal dynamics sustaining the dissociation between the understandings of different types of social intentions.

The tendency to trust is reflected in human brain structure

Trust is an important component of human social life. Within the brain, the function within a neural network implicated in interpersonal and social-cognitive processing is associated with the way trust-based decisions are made. However, it is currently unknown how localized structure within the healthy human brain is associated with the tendency to trust other people. This study was designed to test the prediction that individual differences in the tendency to trust are associated with regional gray matter volume within the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), amygdala and anterior insula. Behavioral and neuroimaging data were collected from a sample of 82 healthy participants. Individual differences in the tendency to trust were measured in two ways (self-report and behaviorally: trustworthiness evaluation of faces task). Voxel based morphometry analyses of high-resolution structural images (VBM8-DARTEL) were conducted to test for the association between the tendency to trust and regional gray matter volume. The results provide converging evidence that individuals characterized as trusting others more exhibit increased gray matter volume within the bilateral vmPFC and bilateral anterior insula. Greater right amygdala volume is associated with the tendency to rate faces as more trustworthy and distrustworthy (U-shaped function). A whole brain analysis also shows that the tendency to trust is reflected in the structure of dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. These findings advance neural models that associate the structure and function of the human brain with social decision-making and the tendency trust other people.

Insights into human behavior from lesions to the prefrontal cortex

The prefrontal cortex (PFC), a cortical region that was once thought to be functionally insignificant, is now known to play an essential role in the organization and control of goal-directed thought and behavior. Neuroimaging, neurophysiological, and modeling techniques have led to tremendous advances in our understanding of PFC functions over the last few decades. It should be noted, however, that neurological, neuropathological, and neuropsychological studies have contributed some of the most essential, historical, and often prescient conclusions regarding the functions of this region. Importantly, examination of patients with brain damage allows one to draw conclusions about whether a brain area is necessary for a particular function. Here, we provide a broad overview of PFC functions based on behavioral and neural changes resulting from damage to PFC in both human patients and nonhuman primates.

The role of the posterior temporal and medial prefrontal cortices in mediating learning from romantic interest and rejection

Romantic interest or rejection can be powerful incentives not merely for their emotional impact, but for their potential to transform, in a single interaction, what we think we know about another person--or ourselves. Little is known, though, about how the brain computes expectations for, and learns from, real-world romantic signals. In a novel "speed-dating" paradigm, we had participants meet potential romantic partners in a series of 5-min "dates," and decide whether they would be interested in seeing each partner again. Afterward, participants were scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging while they were told, for the first time, whether that partner was interested in them or rejected them. Expressions of interest and rejection activated regions previously associated with "mentalizing," including the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) and rostromedial prefrontal cortex (RMPFC); while pSTS responded to differences from the participant's own decision, RMPFC responded to prediction errors from a reinforcement-learning model of personal desirability. Responses in affective regions were also highly sensitive to participants' expectations. Far from being inscrutable, then, responses to romantic expressions seem to involve a quantitative learning process, rooted in distinct sources of expectations, and encoded in neural networks that process both affective value and social beliefs.

Social equality in the number of choice options is represented in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex

A distinct aspect of the sense of fairness in humans is that we care not only about equality in material rewards but also about equality in nonmaterial values. One such value is the opportunity to choose freely among many options, often regarded as a fundamental right to economic freedom. In modern developed societies, equal opportunities in work, living, and lifestyle are enforced by antidiscrimination laws. Despite the widespread endorsement of equal opportunity, no studies have explored how people assign value to it. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to identify the neural substrates for subjective valuation of equality in choice opportunity. Participants performed a two-person choice task in which the number of choices available was varied across trials independently of choice outcomes. By using this procedure, we manipulated the degree of equality in choice opportunity between players and dissociated it from the value of reward outcomes and their equality. We found that activation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) tracked the degree to which the number of options between the two players was equal. In contrast, activation in the ventral striatum tracked the number of options available to participants themselves but not the equality between players. Our results demonstrate that the vmPFC, a key brain region previously implicated in the processing of social values, is also involved in valuation of equality in choice opportunity between individuals. These findings may provide valuable insight into the human ability to value equal opportunity, a characteristic long emphasized in politics, economics, and philosophy.

Brain games: toward a neuroecology of social behavior

In the target article, Schilbach et al. defend a "second-person neuroscience" perspective that focuses on the neural basis of social cognition during live, ongoing interactions between individuals. We argue that a second-person neuroscience would benefit from formal approaches borrowed from economics and behavioral ecology and that it should be extended to social interactions in nonhuman animals.

The behavioral and neural mechanisms underlying the tracking of expertise

Evaluating the abilities of others is fundamental for successful economic and social behavior. We investigated the computational and neurobiological basis of ability tracking by designing an fMRI task that required participants to use and update estimates of both people and algorithms’ expertise through observation of their predictions. Behaviorally, we find a model-based algorithm characterized subject predictions better than several alternative models. Notably, when the agent’s prediction was concordant rather than discordant with the subject’s own likely prediction, participants credited people more than algorithms for correct predictions and penalized them less for incorrect predictions. Neurally, many components of the mentalizing network—medial prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate gyrus, temporoparietal junction, and precuneus—represented or updated expertise beliefs about both people and algorithms. Moreover, activity in lateral orbitofrontal and medial prefrontal cortex reflected behavioral differences in learning about people and algorithms. These findings provide basic insights into the neural basis of social learning.

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We use our own likely actions and others’ explicit accuracy to track their expertise

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We do this differently when observing humans compared to algorithms

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Expertise beliefs and updates are tracked by brain regions linked to mentalizing

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lOFC and mPFC mediate differences in expertise learning for humans and algorithms

Neural correlates of emotion regulation in the ventral prefrontal cortex and the encoding of subjective value and economic utility

In many studies of the interaction between cognitive control and emotion, the orbitofrontal cortex/ventromedial prefrontal cortex (mOFC/vmPFC) has been associated with an inhibitory function on limbic areas activated by emotionally arousing stimuli, such as the amygdala. This has led to the hypothesis of an inhibitory or regulatory role of mOFC/vmPFC. In studies of cognition and executive function, however, this area is deactivated by focused effort, raising the issue of the nature of the putative regulatory process associated with mOFC/vmPFC. This issue is here revisited in light of findings in the neuroeconomics field demonstrating the importance of mOFC/vmPFC to encoding the subjective value of stimuli or their economic utility. Many studies show that mOFC/vmPFC activity may affect response by activating personal preferences, instead of resorting to effortful control mechanisms typically associated with emotion regulation. Based on these findings, I argue that a simple automatic/controlled dichotomy is insufficient to describe the data on emotion and control of response adequately. Instead, I argue that the notion of subjective value from neuroeconomics studies and the notion of attentional orienting may play key roles in integrating emotion and cognition. mOFC/vmPFC may work together with the inferior parietal lobe, the cortical region associated with attentional orienting, to convey information about motivational priorities and facilitate processing of inputs that are behaviorally relevant. I also suggest that the dominant mode of function of this ventral network may be a distinct type of process with intermediate properties between the automatic and the controlled, and which may co-operate with effortful control processes in order to steer response.

Neural correlate of human reciprocity in social interactions

Reciprocity plays a key role maintaining cooperation in society. However, little is known about the neural process that underpins human reciprocity during social interactions. Our neuroimaging study manipulated partner identity (computer, human) and strategy (random, tit-for-tat) in repeated prisoner's dilemma games and investigated the neural correlate of reciprocal interaction with humans. Reciprocal cooperation with humans but exploitation of computers by defection was associated with activation in the left amygdala. Amygdala activation was also positively and negatively correlated with a preference change for human partners following tit-for-tat and random strategies, respectively. The correlated activation represented the intensity of positive feeling toward reciprocal and negative feeling toward non-reciprocal partners, and so reflected reciprocity in social interaction. Reciprocity in social interaction, however, might plausibly be misinterpreted and so we also examined the neural coding of insight into the reciprocity of partners. Those with and without insight revealed differential brain activation across the reward-related circuitry (i.e., the right middle dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and dorsal caudate) and theory of mind (ToM) regions [i.e., ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) and precuneus]. Among differential activations, activation in the precuneus, which accompanied deactivation of the VMPFC, was specific to those without insight into human partners who were engaged in a tit-for-tat strategy. This asymmetric (de)activation might involve specific contributions of ToM regions to the human search for reciprocity. Consequently, the intensity of emotion attached to human reciprocity was represented in the amygdala, whereas insight into the reciprocity of others was reflected in activation across the reward-related and ToM regions. This suggests the critical role of mentalizing, which was not equated with reward expectation during social interactions.

Dorsomedial prefrontal cortex activity predicts the accuracy in estimating others' preferences

The ability to accurately estimate another person's preferences is crucial for a successful social life. In daily interactions, we often do this on the basis of minimal information. The aims of the present study were (a) to examine whether people can accurately judge others based only on a brief exposure to their appearances, and (b) to reveal the underlying neural mechanisms with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants were asked to make guesses about unfamiliar target individuals' preferences for various items after looking at their faces for 3 s. The behavioral results showed that participants estimated others' preferences above chance level. The fMRI data revealed that higher accuracy in preference estimation was associated with greater activity in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC) when participants were guessing the targets' preferences relative to thinking about their own preferences. These findings suggest that accurate estimations of others' preferences may require increased activity in the DMPFC. A functional connectivity analysis revealed that higher accuracy in preference estimation was related to increased functional connectivity between the DMPFC and the brain regions that are known to be involved in theory of mind processing, such as the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC)/precuneus, during correct vs. incorrect guessing trials. On the contrary, the tendency to refer to self-preferences when estimating others' preference was related to greater activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. These findings imply that the DMPFC may be a core region in estimating the preferences of others and that higher accuracy may require stronger communication between the DMPFC and the TPJ and PCC/precuneus, part of a neural network known to be engaged in mentalizing.

How does morality work in the brain? A functional and structural perspective of moral behavior

Neural underpinnings of morality are not yet well understood. Researchers in moral neuroscience have tried to find specific structures and processes that shed light on how morality works. Here, we review the main brain areas that have been associated with morality at both structural and functional levels and speculate about how it can be studied. Orbital and ventromedial prefrontal cortices are implicated in emotionally-driven moral decisions, while dorsolateral prefrontal cortex appears to moderate its response. These competing processes may be mediated by the anterior cingulate cortex. Parietal and temporal structures play important roles in the attribution of others' beliefs and intentions. The insular cortex is engaged during empathic processes. Other regions seem to play a more complementary role in morality. Morality is supported not by a single brain circuitry or structure, but by several circuits overlapping with other complex processes. The identification of the core features of morality and moral-related processes is needed. Neuroscience can provide meaningful insights in order to delineate the boundaries of morality in conjunction with moral psychology.

Distinct neural activation patterns underlie economic decisions in high and low psychopathy scorers

Psychopathic traits affect social functioning and the ability to make adaptive decisions in social interactions. This study investigated how psychopathy affects the neural mechanisms that are recruited to make decisions in the ultimatum game. Thirty-five adult participants recruited from the community underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning while they performed the ultimatum game under high and low cognitive load. Across load conditions, high psychopathy scorers rejected unfair offers in the same proportion as low scorers, but perceived them as less unfair. Among low scorers, the perceived fairness of offers predicted acceptance rates, whereas in high scorers no association was found. Imaging results revealed that responses in each group were associated with distinct patterns of brain activation, indicating divergent decision mechanisms. Acceptance of unfair offers was associated with dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activity in low scorers and ventromedial prefrontal cortex activity in high scorers. Overall, our findings point to distinct motivations for rejecting unfair offers in individuals who vary in psychopathic traits, with rejections in high psychopathy scorers being probably induced by frustration. Implications of these results for models of ventromedial prefrontal cortex dysfunction in psychopathy are discussed.

An agent independent axis for executed and modeled choice in medial prefrontal cortex

Adaptive success in social animals depends on an ability to infer the likely actions of others. Little is known about the neural computations that underlie this capacity. Here, we show that the brain models the values and choices of others even when these values are currently irrelevant. These modeled choices use the same computations that underlie our own choices, but are resolved in a distinct neighboring medial prefrontal brain region. Crucially, however, when subjects choose on behalf of a partner instead of themselves, these regions exchange their functional roles. Hence, regions that represented values of the subject’s executed choices now represent the values of choices executed on behalf of the partner, and those that previously modeled the partner now model the subject. These data tie together neural computations underlying self-referential and social inference, and in so doing establish a new functional axis characterizing the medial wall of prefrontal cortex.

Learning to simulate others' decisions

A fundamental challenge in social cognition is how humans learn another person's values to predict their decision-making behavior. This form of learning is often assumed to require simulation of the other by direct recruitment of one's own valuation process to model the other's process. However, the cognitive and neural mechanism of simulation learning is not known. Using behavior, modeling, and fMRI, we show that simulation involves two learning signals in a hierarchical arrangement. A simulated-other's reward prediction error processed in ventromedial prefrontal cortex mediated simulation by direct recruitment, being identical for valuation of the self and simulated-other. However, direct recruitment was insufficient for learning, and also required observation of the other's choices to generate a simulated-other's action prediction error encoded in dorsomedial/dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. These findings show that simulation uses a core prefrontal circuit for modeling the other's valuation to generate prediction and an adjunct circuit for tracking behavioral variation to refine prediction.