1
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Lockwood PL, Cutler J, Drew D, Abdurahman A, Jeyaretna DS, Apps MAJ, Husain M, Manohar SG. Human ventromedial prefrontal cortex is necessary for prosocial motivation. Nat Hum Behav 2024; 8:1403-1416. [PMID: 38802539 PMCID: PMC11272586 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-024-01899-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/07/2023] [Accepted: 04/23/2024] [Indexed: 05/29/2024]
Abstract
Ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is vital for decision-making. Functional neuroimaging links vmPFC to processing rewards and effort, while parallel work suggests vmPFC involvement in prosocial behaviour. However, the necessity of vmPFC for these functions is unknown. Patients with rare focal vmPFC lesions (n = 25), patients with lesions elsewhere (n = 15) and healthy controls (n = 40) chose between rest and exerting effort to earn rewards for themselves or another person. vmPFC damage decreased prosociality across behavioural and computational measures. vmPFC patients earned less, discounted rewards by effort more, and exerted less force when another person benefited, compared to both control groups. Voxel-based lesion mapping revealed dissociations between vmPFC subregions. While medial damage led to antisocial behaviour, lateral damage increased prosocial behaviour relative to patients with damage elsewhere. vmPFC patients also showed reduced effort sensitivity overall, but reward sensitivity was limited to specific subregions. These results reveal multiple causal contributions of vmPFC to prosocial behaviour, effort and reward.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patricia L Lockwood
- Centre for Human Brain Health, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
- Institute for Mental Health, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
| | - Jo Cutler
- Centre for Human Brain Health, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
- Institute for Mental Health, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
| | - Daniel Drew
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Ayat Abdurahman
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Deva Sanjeeva Jeyaretna
- Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Department of Neurology, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK
| | - Matthew A J Apps
- Centre for Human Brain Health, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
- Institute for Mental Health, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Masud Husain
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Department of Neurology, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK
| | - Sanjay G Manohar
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Department of Neurology, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK
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2
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Messimeris D, Levy R, Le Bouc R. Economic and social values in the brain: evidence from lesions to the human ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Front Neurol 2023; 14:1198262. [PMID: 37900604 PMCID: PMC10602746 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2023.1198262] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2023] [Accepted: 09/27/2023] [Indexed: 10/31/2023] Open
Abstract
Making good economic and social decisions is essential for individual and social welfare. Decades of research have provided compelling evidence that damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is associated with dramatic personality changes and impairments in economic and social decision-making. However, whether the vmPFC subserves a unified mechanism in the social and non-social domains remains unclear. When choosing between economic options, the vmPFC is thought to guide decision by encoding value signals that reflect the motivational relevance of the options on a common scale. A recent framework, the "extended common neural currency" hypothesis, suggests that the vmPFC may also assign values to social factors and principles, thereby guiding social decision-making. Although neural value signals have been observed in the vmPFC in both social and non-social studies, it is yet to be determined whether they have a causal influence on behavior or merely correlate with decision-making. In this review, we assess whether lesion studies of patients with vmPFC damage offer evidence for such a causal role of the vmPFC in shaping economic and social behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Despina Messimeris
- FrontLab, Paris Brain Institute (ICM), Sorbonne University, INSERM UMRS 1127, CNRS UMR 7225, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Paris, France
- Department of Neurology, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Sorbonne University, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), Paris, France
| | - Richard Levy
- FrontLab, Paris Brain Institute (ICM), Sorbonne University, INSERM UMRS 1127, CNRS UMR 7225, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Paris, France
- Department of Neurology, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Sorbonne University, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), Paris, France
| | - Raphaël Le Bouc
- Department of Neurology, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Sorbonne University, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), Paris, France
- Motivation, Brain and Behavior Laboratory (MBB), Paris Brain Institute (ICM), Sorbonne University, INSERM UMRS 1127, CNRS UMR 7225, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Paris, France
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3
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Rusch T, Han Y, Liang D, Hopkins AR, Lawrence CV, Maoz U, Paul LK, Stanley DA. COVID-Dynamic: A large-scale longitudinal study of socioemotional and behavioral change across the pandemic. Sci Data 2023; 10:71. [PMID: 36737442 PMCID: PMC9897616 DOI: 10.1038/s41597-022-01901-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2022] [Accepted: 12/14/2022] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused enormous societal upheaval globally. In the US, beyond the devastating toll on life and health, it triggered an economic shock unseen since the great depression and laid bare preexisting societal inequities. The full impacts of these personal, social, economic, and public-health challenges will not be known for years. To minimize societal costs and ensure future preparedness, it is critical to record the psychological and social experiences of individuals during such periods of high societal volatility. Here, we introduce, describe, and assess the COVID-Dynamic dataset, a within-participant longitudinal study conducted from April 2020 through January 2021, that captures the COVID-19 pandemic experiences of >1000 US residents. Each of 16 timepoints combines standard psychological assessments with novel surveys of emotion, social/political/moral attitudes, COVID-19-related behaviors, tasks assessing implicit attitudes and social decision-making, and external data to contextualize participants' responses. This dataset is a resource for researchers interested in COVID-19-specific questions and basic psychological phenomena, as well as clinicians and policy-makers looking to mitigate the effects of future calamities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tessa Rusch
- Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Yanting Han
- Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Dehua Liang
- Institute for Interdisciplinary Brain and Behavioral Sciences, Chapman University, Orange, CA, USA
| | - Amber R Hopkins
- Institute for Interdisciplinary Brain and Behavioral Sciences, Chapman University, Orange, CA, USA
| | | | - Uri Maoz
- Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
- Institute for Interdisciplinary Brain and Behavioral Sciences, Chapman University, Orange, CA, USA
| | - Lynn K Paul
- Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Damian A Stanley
- Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
- Derner School of Psychology, Adelphi University, 1 South Avenue, Garden City, NY, 11530, USA.
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4
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Zoh Y, Chang SWC, Crockett MJ. The prefrontal cortex and (uniquely) human cooperation: a comparative perspective. Neuropsychopharmacology 2022; 47:119-133. [PMID: 34413478 PMCID: PMC8617274 DOI: 10.1038/s41386-021-01092-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2021] [Revised: 06/03/2021] [Accepted: 06/24/2021] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Humans have an exceptional ability to cooperate relative to many other species. We review the neural mechanisms supporting human cooperation, focusing on the prefrontal cortex. One key feature of human social life is the prevalence of cooperative norms that guide social behavior and prescribe punishment for noncompliance. Taking a comparative approach, we consider shared and unique aspects of cooperative behaviors in humans relative to nonhuman primates, as well as divergences in brain structure that might support uniquely human aspects of cooperation. We highlight a medial prefrontal network common to nonhuman primates and humans supporting a foundational process in cooperative decision-making: valuing outcomes for oneself and others. This medial prefrontal network interacts with lateral prefrontal areas that are thought to represent cooperative norms and modulate value representations to guide behavior appropriate to the local social context. Finally, we propose that more recently evolved anterior regions of prefrontal cortex play a role in arbitrating between cooperative norms across social contexts, and suggest how future research might fruitfully examine the neural basis of norm arbitration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yoonseo Zoh
- grid.47100.320000000419368710Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, USA
| | - Steve W. C. Chang
- grid.47100.320000000419368710Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, USA
| | - Molly J. Crockett
- grid.47100.320000000419368710Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, USA
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5
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Sciaraffa N, Liu J, Aricò P, Flumeri GD, Inguscio BMS, Borghini G, Babiloni F. Multivariate model for cooperation: bridging social physiological compliance and hyperscanning. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2021; 16:193-209. [PMID: 32860692 PMCID: PMC7812636 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsaa119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/03/2020] [Revised: 06/30/2020] [Accepted: 08/26/2020] [Indexed: 01/06/2023] Open
Abstract
The neurophysiological analysis of cooperation has evolved over the past 20 years, moving towards the research of common patterns in neurophysiological signals of people interacting. Social physiological compliance (SPC) and hyperscanning represent two frameworks for the joint analysis of autonomic and brain signals, respectively. Each of the two approaches allows to know about a single layer of cooperation according to the nature of these signals: SPC provides information mainly related to emotions, and hyperscanning that related to cognitive aspects. In this work, after the analysis of the state of the art of SPC and hyperscanning, we explored the possibility to unify the two approaches creating a complete neurophysiological model for cooperation considering both affective and cognitive mechanisms We synchronously recorded electrodermal activity, cardiac and brain signals of 14 cooperative dyads. Time series from these signals were extracted, and multivariate Granger causality was computed. The results showed that only when subjects in a dyad cooperate there is a statistically significant causality between the multivariate variables representing each subject. Moreover, the entity of this statistical relationship correlates with the dyad’s performance. Finally, given the novelty of this approach and its exploratory nature, we provided its strengths and limitations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicolina Sciaraffa
- Department of Molecular Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.,BrainSigns srl, Rome, Italy
| | - Jieqiong Liu
- School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, Shanghai Changning-ECNU Mental Health Center, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
| | - Pietro Aricò
- Department of Molecular Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.,BrainSigns srl, Rome, Italy.,IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Neuroelectrical Imaging and BCI Lab, Rome, Italy
| | - Gianluca Di Flumeri
- Department of Molecular Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.,BrainSigns srl, Rome, Italy.,IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Neuroelectrical Imaging and BCI Lab, Rome, Italy
| | - Bianca M S Inguscio
- BrainSigns srl, Rome, Italy.,Department of Sense Organs, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | - Gianluca Borghini
- Department of Molecular Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.,BrainSigns srl, Rome, Italy.,IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Neuroelectrical Imaging and BCI Lab, Rome, Italy
| | - Fabio Babiloni
- Department of Molecular Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.,BrainSigns srl, Rome, Italy.,College of Computer Science and Technology, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou Zhejiang Province, People's Republic of China
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6
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Hackel LM, Wills JA, Van Bavel JJ. Shifting prosocial intuitions: neurocognitive evidence for a value-based account of group-based cooperation. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2021; 15:371-381. [PMID: 32337604 PMCID: PMC7308656 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsaa055] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/14/2019] [Revised: 02/06/2020] [Accepted: 04/17/2020] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
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.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leor M Hackel
- Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90007, USA
| | - Julian A Wills
- Department of Psychology & Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA
| | - Jay J Van Bavel
- Department of Psychology & Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA
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7
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Buades-Rotger M, Göttlich M, Weiblen R, Petereit P, Scheidt T, Keevil BG, Krämer UM. Low Competitive Status Elicits Aggression in Healthy Young Men: Behavioral and Neural Evidence. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2021; 16:1123-1137. [PMID: 33959776 PMCID: PMC8599182 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsab061] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2020] [Revised: 04/23/2021] [Accepted: 05/05/2021] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Winners are commonly assumed to compete more aggressively than losers. Here, we find overwhelming evidence for the opposite. We first demonstrate that low-ranking teams commit more fouls than they receive in top-tier soccer, ice hockey, and basketball men's leagues. We replicate this effect in the laboratory, showing that male participants deliver louder sound blasts to a rival when placed in a low-status position. Using neuroimaging, we characterize brain activity patterns that encode competitive status as well as those that facilitate status-dependent aggression in healthy young men. These analyses reveal three key findings. First, anterior hippocampus and striatum contain multivariate representations of competitive status. Second, interindividual differences in status-dependent aggression are linked with a sharper status differentiation in the striatum and with greater reactivity to status-enhancing victories in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. Third, activity in ventromedial, ventrolateral, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is associated with trial-wise increases in status-dependent aggressive behavior. Taken together, our results run counter to narratives glorifying aggression in competitive situations. Rather, we show that those in the lower ranks of skill-based hierarchies are more likely to behave aggressively and identify the potential neural basis of this phenomenon.
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Affiliation(s)
- Macià Buades-Rotger
- Department of Neurology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany.,Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany.,Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Martin Göttlich
- Department of Neurology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany
| | - Ronja Weiblen
- Department of Neurology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany.,Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany
| | | | - Thomas Scheidt
- Department of Neurology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany
| | - Brian G Keevil
- Department of Clinical Biochemistry, University Hospital of South Manchester, Manchester, UK
| | - Ulrike M Krämer
- Department of Neurology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany.,Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany.,Center of Brain, Behavior and Metabolism (CBBM), University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany
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8
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Gavrilets S, Richerson PJ, de Waal FBM. Celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Descent of Man. EVOLUTIONARY HUMAN SCIENCES 2021; 3:e17. [PMID: 37588527 PMCID: PMC10427289 DOI: 10.1017/ehs.2021.15] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
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Affiliation(s)
- Sergey Gavrilets
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Department of Mathematics, National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis, Center for the Dynamics of Social Complexity, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN37996, USA
| | - Peter J Richerson
- Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California, Davis, CA95616, USA
| | - Frans B. M. de Waal
- Living Links, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, Atlanta, GA30322, USA
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9
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Nam HH, Jost JT, Meager MR, Van Bavel JJ. Toward a neuropsychology of political orientation: exploring ideology in patients with frontal and midbrain lesions. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2021; 376:20200137. [PMID: 33611994 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0137] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/17/2023] Open
Abstract
How do people form their political beliefs? In an effort to address this question, we adopt a neuropsychological approach. In a natural experiment, we explored links between neuroanatomy and ideological preferences in two samples of brain lesion patients in New York City. Specifically, we compared the political orientations of patients with frontal lobe lesions, patients with amygdala lesions and healthy control subjects. Lesion type classification analyses revealed that people with frontal lesions held more conservative (or less liberal) beliefs than those with anterior temporal lobe lesions or no lesions. Additional analyses predicting ideology by extent of damage provided convergent evidence that greater damage in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex-but not the amygdala-was associated with greater conservatism. These findings were robust to model specifications that adjusted for demographic, mood, and affect-related variables. Although measures of executive function failed to mediate the relationship between frontal lesions and ideology, our findings suggest that the prefrontal cortex may play a role in promoting the development of liberal ideology. Our approach suggests useful directions for future work to address the issue of whether biological developments precede political attitudes or vice versa-or both. This article is part of the theme issue 'The political brain: neurocognitive and computational mechanisms'.
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Affiliation(s)
- H Hannah Nam
- Department of Political Science, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA
| | - John T Jost
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, USA.,Department of Politics and the Center for Data Science, New York University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Michael R Meager
- Private Practice, New York, NY, USA.,Department of Neurology, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
| | - Jay J Van Bavel
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, USA.,Department of Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, USA
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10
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Reinero DA, Dikker S, Van Bavel JJ. Inter-brain synchrony in teams predicts collective performance. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2021; 16:43-57. [PMID: 32991728 PMCID: PMC7812618 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsaa135] [Citation(s) in RCA: 57] [Impact Index Per Article: 19.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/01/2020] [Revised: 09/17/2020] [Accepted: 09/28/2020] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Despite decades of research in economics and psychology attempting to identify ingredients that make up successful teams, neuroscientists have only just begun to study how multiple brains interact. Recent research has shown that people's brain activity becomes synchronized with others' (inter-brain synchrony) during social engagement. However, little is known as to whether inter-brain synchrony relates to collective behavior within teams. Here, we merge the nascent field of group neuroscience with the extant literature of team dynamics and collective performance. We recruited 174 participants in groups of 4 and randomly assigned them to complete a series of problem-solving tasks either independently or as a team, while simultaneously recording each person's brain activity using an electroencephalography hyperscanning setup. This design allowed us to examine the relationship between group identification and inter-brain synchrony in explaining collective performance. As expected, teammates identified more strongly with one another, cooperated more on an economic game, and outperformed the average individual on most problem-solving tasks. Crucially, inter-brain synchrony, but not self-reported group identification, predicted collective performance among teams. These results suggest that inter-brain synchrony can be informative in understanding collective performance among teams where self-report measures may fail to capture behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Diego A Reinero
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Suzanne Dikker
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Jay J Van Bavel
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, USA
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11
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Chen C, Martínez RM, Chen Y, Cheng Y. Pointing fingers at others: The neural correlates of actor-observer asymmetry in blame attribution. Neuropsychologia 2019; 136:107281. [PMID: 31770551 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.107281] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/13/2019] [Revised: 11/21/2019] [Accepted: 11/21/2019] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
People tend to describe others' immoral behaviors as intentional and dispositional, and their own as unintentional events. The actor-observer asymmetry might reflect at least true attitudes potentially free from intentional faking. Implicit attitudes - i.e., automatic evaluation of the rightness or wrongness of actions - play a central role in guiding moral decision-making. Yet, little research has investigated how value computations are associated with actor-observer asymmetry of moral decision-making. In this fMRI study, we developed the morally-laden implicit association test (mIAT) to examine the extent to which implicit attitudes are predictive of online neural response when participants mentally simulate or passively observe morally-laden behaviors such as helping or harming others. Results showed that the scores on the mIAT were predictive of actor-observer asymmetry when attributing blame for immoral behavior, associated with neural responses in the orbitofrontal cortex and temporal pole. The asymmetry between first-hand experiencing and passive viewing moral behavior recruited the activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and right temporoparietal junction. These findings indicate that implicit moral attitudes can predict moral evaluation and neural responses to asymmetry between experiencing and observing injustice. They provide important knowledge regarding the individual differences involved in the computational mechanisms underlying how implicit attitudes guide moral decision-making.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chenyi Chen
- Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, National Yang-Ming University Hospital, Yilan, Taiwan; Graduate Institute of Injury Prevention and Control, College of Public Health, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan; Brain and Consciousness Research Center, Shuang-Ho Hospital, Taipei Medical University, New Taipei City, Taiwan; Graduate Institute of Mind, Brain and Consciousness, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan; Cell Physiology and Molecular Image Research Center, Wan Fang Hospital, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Róger Marcelo Martínez
- Graduate Institute of Injury Prevention and Control, College of Public Health, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Yijhen Chen
- Institute of Neuroscience and Brain Research Center, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Yawei Cheng
- Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, National Yang-Ming University Hospital, Yilan, Taiwan; Institute of Neuroscience and Brain Research Center, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Education and Research, Taipei City Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
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12
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Yu LQ, Kan IP, Kable JW. Beyond a rod through the skull: A systematic review of lesion studies of the human ventromedial frontal lobe. Cogn Neuropsychol 2019; 37:97-141. [PMID: 31739752 DOI: 10.1080/02643294.2019.1690981] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
Neuropsychological studies from the past century have associated damage to the ventromedial frontal lobes (VMF) with impairments in a variety of domains, including memory, executive function, emotion, social cognition, and valuation. A central question in the literature is whether these seemingly distinct functions are subserved by different sub-regions within the VMF, or whether VMF supports a broader cognitive process that is crucial to these varied domains. In this comprehensive review of the neuropsychological literature from the last two decades, we present a qualitative synthesis of 184 papers that have examined the psychological impairments that result from VMF damage. We discuss these findings in the context of several theoretical frameworks and advocate for the view that VMF is critical for the formation and representation of schema and cognitive maps.
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Affiliation(s)
- Linda Q Yu
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.,Carney Institute for Brain Science, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
| | - Irene P Kan
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Villanova University, Villanova, PA, USA
| | - Joseph W Kable
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
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13
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Bellucci G, Molter F, Park SQ. Neural representations of honesty predict future trust behavior. Nat Commun 2019; 10:5184. [PMID: 31729396 PMCID: PMC6858375 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-13261-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2019] [Accepted: 10/28/2019] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
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.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gabriele Bellucci
- Department of Psychology I, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany. .,Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany. .,Department of Decision Neuroscience and Nutrition, German Institute of Human Nutrition (DIfE), Nuthetal, Germany.
| | - Felix Molter
- WZB Berlin Social Science Center, Berlin, Germany
| | - Soyoung Q Park
- Department of Psychology I, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany.,Department of Decision Neuroscience and Nutrition, German Institute of Human Nutrition (DIfE), Nuthetal, Germany.,Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Neuroscience Research Center, Berlin, Germany.,Deutsches Zentrum für Diabetes, Neuherberg, Germany
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14
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Baumgartner T, Dahinden FM, Gianotti LRR, Knoch D. Neural traits characterize unconditional cooperators, conditional cooperators, and noncooperators in group-based cooperation. Hum Brain Mapp 2019; 40:4508-4517. [PMID: 31313437 PMCID: PMC6773361 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.24717] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/15/2019] [Revised: 06/27/2019] [Accepted: 07/03/2019] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Contributing to and maintaining public goods are important for a functioning society. In reality, however, we see large variations in contribution behavior. While some individuals are not cooperative, others are highly so. Still others cooperate only to the extent they believe others will. Although these distinct behavioral types clearly have a divergent social impact, the sources of heterogeneity are poorly understood. We used source‐localized resting electroencephalography in combination with a model‐free clustering approach to participants' behavior in the Public Goods Game to explain heterogeneity. Findings revealed that compared to noncooperators, both conditional cooperators and unconditional cooperators are characterized by higher baseline activation in the right temporo‐parietal junction, an area involved in social cognition. Interestingly, conditional cooperators were further characterized by higher baseline activation in the left lateral prefrontal cortex, an area involved in behavioral control. Our findings suggest that conditional cooperators' better capacities for behavioral control enable them to control their propensity to cooperate and thus to minimize the risk of exploitation by noncooperators.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas Baumgartner
- Department of Social Psychology and Social Neuroscience, Institute of Psychology, University of Bern, Switzerland
| | - Franziska M Dahinden
- Department of Social Psychology and Social Neuroscience, Institute of Psychology, University of Bern, Switzerland
| | - Lorena R R Gianotti
- Department of Social Psychology and Social Neuroscience, Institute of Psychology, University of Bern, Switzerland
| | - Daria Knoch
- Department of Social Psychology and Social Neuroscience, Institute of Psychology, University of Bern, Switzerland
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15
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Firat RB. Opening the "Black Box": Functions of the Frontal Lobes and Their Implications for Sociology. FRONTIERS IN SOCIOLOGY 2019; 4:3. [PMID: 33869331 PMCID: PMC8022643 DOI: 10.3389/fsoc.2019.00003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2018] [Accepted: 01/10/2019] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Previous research has provided theoretical frameworks for building inter-disciplinary bridges between sociology and the neurosciences; yet, more anatomically, or functionally focused perspectives offering detailed information to sociologists are largely missing from the literature. This manuscript addresses this gap by offering a comprehensive review of the functions of the frontal lobes, arguably the most important brain region involved in various "human" skills ranging from abstract thinking to language. The paper proposes that the functions of the frontal lobe sub-regions can be divided into three inter-related hierarchical systems with varying degrees of causal proximity in regulating human behavior and social connectedness: (a) the most proximate, voluntary, controlled behavior-including motor functions underlying action-perception and mirror neurons, (b) more abstract motivation and emotional regulation-such as Theory of Mind and empathy, and (c) the higher-order executive functioning-e.g., inhibition of racial bias. The paper offers insights from the social neuroscience literature on phenomena that lie at the core of social theory and research including moral cognition and behavior, and empathy and inter-group attitudes and provides future research questions for interdisciplinary research.
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