The influence of cooperation and defection on social decision making in depression: A study of the iterated Prisoner's Dilemma Game

Social decision-making in major depressive disorder: A three-level meta-analysis

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is frequently associated with social dysfunction and impaired decision-making, but its impact on social decisions remains unclear. Thus, we conducted a series of meta-analyses to examine the effects of MDD on key social decision phenomena, including trust, altruistic punishment, and cooperation. We searched Web of Science, PubMed, PsycINFO, and Embase up to December 2023, using Hedges' g to compare social decision-making between MDD patients and healthy controls (HCs). Meta-analytic results showed that MDD patients exhibited a significant reduction in trust (Hedges' g = -0.347, p < 0.001), no significant difference in altruistic punishment (Hedges' g = 0.232, p = 0.149), and an increase in cooperative behaviors (Hedges' g = 0.361, p = 0.002) compared to HCs. The moderation analysis revealed that age (p = 0.039) and region (p = 0.007) significantly moderated altruistic punishment, with older MDD patients and those from Asian and European regions having larger MDD-HC contrast than others. Regarding cooperation, moderation analysis indicated that age (p = 0.028), years of education (p = 0.054), and treatment coverage (p = 0.042) were significant moderators, indicating larger MDD-HC contrast in older, less-educated and better-treated people. These findings suggest MDD has different impacts on different social decisions, highlighting the need for fine-tuned therapeutic interventions that address these differences. The data also underscores the importance of considering demographic and treatment-related variables in managing MDD, which could inform personalized treatment strategies and improve social functionality and patient outcomes.

Factors of influence in prisoner's dilemma task: a review of medical literature

The Prisoner's Dilemma (PD) is one of the most popular concepts amongst the scientific literature. The task is used in order to study different types of social interactions by giving participants the choice to defect or cooperate in a specific social setting/dilemma. This review focuses on the technical characteristics of the PD task as it is used in medical literature and describes how the different PD settings could influence the players' behaviour. We identify all the studies that have used the PD task in medical research with human participants and distinguish, following a heuristic approach, seven parameters that can differentiate a PD task, namely (a) the opponent parties' composition; (b) the type of the opponent as perceived by the players; (c) the interaction flow of the game; (d) the number of rounds; (e) the instructions narrative and options that are given to players; (f) the strategy and (g) the reward matrix and payoffs of the game. We describe how each parameter could influence the final outcome of the PD task and highlight the great variability concerning the settings of these parameters in medical research. Our aim is to point out the heterogeneity of such methods in the past literature and to assist future researchers with their methodology design.

Foraging optimally in social neuroscience: computations and methodological considerations

Research in social neuroscience has increasingly begun to use the tools of computational neuroscience to better understand behaviour. Such approaches have proven fruitful for probing underlying neural mechanisms. However, little attention has been paid to how the structure of experimental tasks relates to real-world decisions, and the problems that brains have evolved to solve. To go significantly beyond current understanding, we must begin to use paradigms and mathematical models from behavioural ecology, which offer insights into the decisions animals must make successfully in order to survive. One highly influential theory-marginal value theorem (MVT)-precisely characterises and provides an optimal solution to a vital foraging decision that most species must make: the patch-leaving problem. Animals must decide when to leave collecting rewards in a current patch (location) and travel somewhere else. We propose that many questions posed in social neuroscience can be approached as patch-leaving problems. A richer understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying social behaviour will be obtained by using MVT. In this 'tools of the trade' article, we outline the patch-leaving problem, the computations of MVT and discuss the application to social neuroscience. Furthermore, we consider the practical challenges and offer solutions for designing paradigms probing patch leaving, both behaviourally and when using neuroimaging techniques.

A review of neuroeconomic gameplay in psychiatric disorders

Abnormalities in social interaction are a common feature of several psychiatric disorders, aligning with the recent move towards using Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) to describe disorders in terms of observable behaviours rather than using specific diagnoses. Neuroeconomic games are an effective measure of social decision-making that can be adapted for use in neuroimaging, allowing investigation of the biological basis for behaviour. This review summarises findings of neuroeconomic gameplay studies in Axis 1 psychiatric disorders and advocates the use of these games as measures of the RDoC Affiliation and Attachment, Reward Responsiveness, Reward Learning and Reward Valuation constructs. Although research on neuroeconomic gameplay is in its infancy, consistencies have been observed across disorders, particularly in terms of impaired integration of social and cognitive information, avoidance of negative social interactions and reduced reward sensitivity, as well as a reduction in activity in brain regions associated with processing and responding to social information.

MDMA Increases Cooperation and Recruitment of Social Brain Areas When Playing Trustworthy Players in an Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma

Social decision-making is fundamental for successful functioning and can be affected in psychiatric illness and by serotoninergic modulation. The Prisoner's Dilemma is the archetypal paradigm to model cooperation and trust. However, the effect of serotonergic enhancement is poorly characterized, and its influence on the effect of variations in opponent behavior unknown. To address this, we conducted a study investigating how the serotonergic enhancer 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA) modulates behavior and its neural correlates during an iterated Prisoner's Dilemma with both trustworthy and untrustworthy opponents. We administered 100 mg MDMA or placebo to 20 male participants in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study. While being scanned, participants played repeated rounds with opponents who differed in levels of cooperation. On each round, participants chose to compete or cooperate and were asked to rate their trust in the other player. Cooperation with trustworthy, but not untrustworthy, opponents was enhanced following MDMA but not placebo (respectively: odds ratio = 2.01; 95% CI, 1.42-2.84, p < 0.001; odds ratio = 1.37; 95% CI, 0.78-2.30, not significant). Specifically, MDMA enhanced recovery from, but not the impact of, breaches in cooperation. During trial outcome, MDMA increased activation of four clusters incorporating precentral and supramarginal gyri, superior temporal cortex, central operculum/posterior insula, and supplementary motor area. There was a treatment × opponent interaction in right anterior insula and dorsal caudate. Trust ratings did not change across treatment sessions. MDMA increased cooperative behavior when playing trustworthy opponents. Underlying this was a change in brain activity of regions linked to social cognition. Our findings highlight the context-specific nature of MDMA's effect on social decision-making.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT We provide a detailed analysis of the effect of 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA) on cooperative behavior during interpersonal interactions, as well as the neural correlates underlying these effects. We find that, following administration of MDMA, participants behave more cooperatively, but only when interacting with trustworthy partners. While breaches of trustworthy behavior have a similar impact following administration of MDMA compared with placebo, MDMA facilitates a greater recovery from these breaches of trust. Underlying this altered behavior are changes in brain activity during the viewing of opponents' behavior in regions whose involvement in social processing is well established. This work provides new insights into the impact of MDMA on social interactions, emphasizing the important role of the behavior of others toward us.

Getting less than their fair share: Maltreated youth are hyper-cooperative yet vulnerable to exploitation in a public goods game

Human cooperative behavior has long been thought to decline under adversity. However, studies have primarily examined perceived patterns of cooperation, with little eye to actual cooperative behavior embedded within social interaction. Game-theoretical paradigms can help close this gap by unpacking subtle differences in how cooperation unfolds during initial encounters. This study is the first to use a child-appropriate, virtual, public goods game to study actual cooperative behavior in 329 participants aged 9-16 years with histories of maltreatment (n = 99) and no maltreatment (n = 230) while controlling for psychiatric symptoms. Unlike work on perceived patterns of cooperation, we found that maltreated participants actually contribute more resources to a public good during peer interaction than their nonmaltreated counterparts. This effect was robust when controlling for psychiatric symptoms and peer problems as well as demographic variables. We conclude that maltreatment may engender a hyper-cooperative strategy to minimize the odds of hostility and preserve positive interaction during initial encounters. This, however, comes at the cost of potential exploitation by others.

Prosocial Behavior and Depression: a Case for Developmental Gender Differences

Purpose of Review

Prosocial behavior and depression are related constructs that both increase during adolescence and display gender-specific effects. The current review surveys literature examining the association between depressive symptoms and prosociality, measured with behavioral economic paradigms, across development and proposes a theoretical model explaining a mechanism through which adolescent girls have higher risk for depression than boys.

Recent Findings

Relative to healthy controls, prosocial behavior is reduced in adults with major depressive disorder (MDD) but may be increased in adolescents with MDD. The relationship between non-clinical levels of depressive symptoms and prosocial behavior remains to be studied experimentally; however, self-reported prosocial behavior is negatively associated with depressive symptoms in non-clinical adolescents, which may suggest a shift in the relation of prosocial behavior and depressive symptoms across the non-clinical (i.e., negative) to clinical range (i.e., positive).

Summary

The effect of gender on these developmental and clinical status shifts has not been studied but could have important implications for understanding the emergence of higher rates of depression in girls than boys during adolescence. We propose that girls are at heightened risk for depression due to higher social-evaluative concern and other-oriented prosocial motivation that emphasize the needs of others over the self, leading to more altruistic prosocial behavior (despite personal cost) and a higher burden that enables depressive symptoms.