1
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Yang Q, Hoffman M, Krueger F. The science of justice: The neuropsychology of social punishment. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2024; 157:105525. [PMID: 38158000 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105525] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/18/2023] [Revised: 12/21/2023] [Accepted: 12/23/2023] [Indexed: 01/03/2024]
Abstract
The social punishment (SP) of norm violations has received much attention across multiple disciplines. However, current models of SP fail to consider the role of motivational processes, and none can explain the observed behavioral and neuropsychological differences between the two recognized forms of SP: second-party punishment (2PP) and third-party punishment (3PP). After reviewing the literature giving rise to the current models of SP, we propose a unified model of SP which integrates general psychological descriptions of decision-making as a confluence of affect, cognition, and motivation, with evidence that SP is driven by two main factors: the amount of harm (assessed primarily in the salience network) and the norm violator's intention (assessed primarily in the default-mode and central-executive networks). We posit that motivational differences between 2PP and 3PP, articulated in mesocorticolimbic pathways, impact final SP by differentially impacting the assessments of harm and intention done in these domain-general large-scale networks. This new model will lead to a better understanding of SP, which might even improve forensic, procedural, and substantive legal practices.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qun Yang
- Department of Psychology, Jing Hengyi School of Education, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China.
| | - Morris Hoffman
- Second Judicial District (ret.), State of Colorado, Denver, CO, USA.
| | - Frank Krueger
- School of Systems Biology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA.
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2
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Perchtold-Stefan CM, Rominger C, Papousek I, Fink A. Functional EEG Alpha Activation Patterns During Malevolent Creativity. Neuroscience 2023; 522:98-108. [PMID: 37178782 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2023.05.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2022] [Revised: 04/24/2023] [Accepted: 05/05/2023] [Indexed: 05/15/2023]
Abstract
On the dark side of creativity, creative ideation is intentionally used to damage others. This first EEG study on malevolent creativity investigated task-related power (TRP) changes in the alpha band while n = 89 participants (52 women, 37 men) generated original ideas for revenge in the psychometric Malevolent Creativity Test. TRP changes were assessed for different stages of the idea generation process and linked to performance indicators of malevolent creativity. This study revealed three crucial findings: 1) Malevolent creativity yielded topographically distinct alpha power increases similar to conventional creative ideation. 2) Time-related activity changes during malevolent creative ideation were reflected in early prefrontal and mid-stage temporal alpha power increases in individuals with higher malevolent creativity performance. This performance-related, time-sensitive pattern of TRP changes during malevolent creativity may reflect early conceptual expansion from prosocial to antisocial perspectives, and subsequent inhibition of dominant semantic associations in favor of novel revenge ideas. 3) The observed, right-lateralized alpha power increases over the entire ideation phase may denote an additional emotional load of creative ideation. Our study highlights the seminal role of EEG alpha oscillations as a biomarker for creativity, also when creative processes operate in a malevolent context.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Ilona Papousek
- Department of Psychology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria
| | - Andreas Fink
- Department of Psychology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria
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3
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Zhang J, Sun S, Zhou C, Cai Y, Liu H, Yang Z, Yu R. Breakdown of intention-based outcome evaluation after transient right temporoparietal junction deactivation. Sci Rep 2023; 13:1259. [PMID: 36690645 PMCID: PMC9870900 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-28293-w] [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: 09/03/2022] [Accepted: 01/16/2023] [Indexed: 01/24/2023] Open
Abstract
People judge the nature of human behaviors based on underlying intentions and possible outcomes. Recent studies have demonstrated a causal role of the right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) in modulating both intention and intention-based outcome evaluations during social judgments. However, these studies mainly used hypothetical scenarios with socially undesirable contexts (bad/neutral intentions and bad/neutral outcomes), leaving the role of rTPJ in judging good intentions and good outcomes unclear. In the current study, participants were instructed to make goodness judgments as a third party toward the monetary allocations from one proposer to another responder. Critically, in some cases, the initial allocation by the proposer could be reversed by the computer, yielding combinations of good/bad intentions (of the proposer) with good/bad outcomes (for the responder). Anodal (n = 20), cathodal (n = 21), and sham (n = 21) transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the rTPJ were randomly assigned to 62 subjects to further examine the effects of stimulation over the rTPJ in modulating intention-based outcome evaluation. Compared to the anodal and sham stimulations, cathodal tDCS over the rTPJ reduced the goodness ratings of good/bad outcomes when the intentions were good, whereas it showed no significant effect on outcome ratings under unknown and bad intentions. Our results provide the first evidence that deactivating the rTPJ modulates outcome evaluation in an intention-dependent fashion, mainly by reducing the goodness rating towards both good/bad outcomes when the intentions are good. Our findings argue for a causal role of the rTPJ in modulating intention-based social judgments and point to nuanced effects of rTPJ modulation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Junfeng Zhang
- Research Base of Traditional Chinese Medicine Syndrome, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou, China
| | - Sai Sun
- Frontier Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan.
- Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan.
| | - Chengyan Zhou
- School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Yaochun Cai
- School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Hao Liu
- Department of Psychology, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Zhaoyang Yang
- Research Base of Traditional Chinese Medicine Syndrome, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou, China.
| | - Rongjun Yu
- Department of Management, Marketing, and Information Systems, School of Business, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, HKSAR, Hong Kong, China.
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4
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Ye S, Li W, Zhu B, Lv Y, Yang Q, Krueger F. Altered effective connectivity from the posterior insula to the amygdala mediates the relationship between psychopathic traits and endorsement of the Harm foundation. Neuropsychologia 2022; 170:108216. [PMID: 35339504 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108216] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2021] [Revised: 03/20/2022] [Accepted: 03/20/2022] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
Psychopathic traits have been demonstrated to be associated with different moral foundations. However, the neuropsychological mechanism underlying the relationship between psychopathic traits and moral foundations remains obscure. Our study examined the effective connectivity (EC) of psychopathy-related brain regions and its association with endorsement to moral foundations (Harm, Fairness, Loyalty, Authority, and Purity)-combining questionnaire measures, resting-state fMRI (RS-fMRI), and Granger causality analysis. We administered the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale and Moral Foundation Questionnaire to 78 college students after RS-fMRI scanning. Our results showed that total and primary psychopathy negatively predicted endorsement of the Harm foundation. The EC from the posterior insula to the amygdala was negatively associated with primary psychopathy but positively associated with endorsement of the Harm foundation. Altered posterior insula-amygdala EC partially mediated the relationship between primary psychopathy and endorsement of the Harm foundation. Our findings demonstrated that individuals with elevated psychopathic traits may have atypical processes in recognizing and integrating bodily state information into emotional responses -leading to less concern for harm-related morality. Our findings deepen the understanding of the neuropsychological mechanism underlying the relationship between psychopathic traits and morality, providing potential neurobiological explanations for increased moral transgressions, especially those harm-related transgressions, committed by psychopathic individuals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shuer Ye
- Department of Psychology, School of Education, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Wei Li
- Department of Psychology, School of Education, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Bing Zhu
- School of Marxism, Zhejiang Yuexiu University, China
| | - Yating Lv
- Centre for Cognition and Brain Disorder, The Affiliated Hospital of Hangzhou Normal University, China.
| | - Qun Yang
- Department of Psychology, School of Education, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China.
| | - Frank Krueger
- School of Systems Biology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA
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5
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Boccadoro S, Wagels L, Puiu AA, Votinov M, Weidler C, Veselinovic T, Demko Z, Raine A, Neuner I. A meta-analysis on shared and distinct neural correlates of the decision-making underlying altruistic and retaliatory punishment. Hum Brain Mapp 2021; 42:5547-5562. [PMID: 34415078 PMCID: PMC8559514 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.25635] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2021] [Revised: 08/07/2021] [Accepted: 08/09/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Individuals who violate social norms will most likely face social punishment sanctions. Those sanctions are based on different motivation aspects, depending on the context. Altruistic punishment occurs if punishment aims to re‐establish the social norms even at cost for the punisher. Retaliatory punishment is driven by anger or spite and aims to harm the other. While neuroimaging research highlighted the neural networks supporting decision‐making in both types of punishment in isolation, it remains unclear whether they rely on the same or distinct neural systems. We ran an activation likelihood estimation meta‐analysis on functional magnetic resonance imaging data on 24 altruistic and 19 retaliatory punishment studies to investigate the neural correlates of decision‐making underlying social punishment and whether altruistic and retaliatory punishments share similar brain networks. Social punishment reliably activated the bilateral insula, inferior frontal gyrus, midcingulate cortex (MCC), and superior and medial frontal gyri. This network largely overlapped with activation clusters found for altruistic punishment. However, retaliatory punishment revealed only one cluster in a posterior part of the MCC, which was not recruited in altruistic punishment. Our results support previous models on social punishment and highlight differential involvement of the MCC in altruistic and retaliatory punishments, reflecting the underlying different motivations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sara Boccadoro
- Departments of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, School of Medicine, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
| | - Lisa Wagels
- Departments of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, School of Medicine, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.,JARA-Institute Brain Structure Function Relationship (INM 10), Research Center Jülich, Jülich, Germany
| | - Andrei A Puiu
- Departments of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, School of Medicine, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
| | - Mikhail Votinov
- Departments of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, School of Medicine, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.,JARA-Institute Brain Structure Function Relationship (INM 10), Research Center Jülich, Jülich, Germany
| | - Carmen Weidler
- Departments of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, School of Medicine, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
| | - Tanja Veselinovic
- Departments of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, School of Medicine, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
| | - Zachary Demko
- Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin
| | - Adrian Raine
- Departments of Criminology, Psychiatry, and Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Irene Neuner
- Departments of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, School of Medicine, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.,Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-4), Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, Germany.,JARA-BRAIN - Translational Medicine, Aachen, Germany
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6
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Undeger I, Visser RM, Becker N, de Boer L, Golkar A, Olsson A. Model-based representational similarity analysis of blood-oxygen-level-dependent fMRI captures threat learning in social interactions. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2021; 8:202116. [PMID: 34849237 PMCID: PMC8611347 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.202116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/24/2020] [Accepted: 10/29/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Past research has shown that attributions of intentions to other's actions determine how we experience these actions and their consequences. Yet, it is unknown how such attributions affect our learning and memory. Addressing this question, we combined neuroimaging with an interactive threat learning paradigm in which two interaction partners (confederates) made choices that had either threatening (shock) or safe (no shock) consequences for the participants. Importantly, participants were led to believe that one partner intentionally caused the delivery of shock, whereas the other did not (i.e. unintentional partner). Following intentional versus unintentional shocks, participants reported an inflated number of shocks and a greater increase in anger and vengeance. We applied a model-based representational similarity analysis to blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD)-MRI patterns during learning. Surprisingly, we did not find any effects of intentionality. The threat value of actions, however, was represented as a trial-by-trial increase in representational similarity in the insula and the inferior frontal gyrus. Our findings illustrate how neural pattern formation can be used to study a complex interaction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Irem Undeger
- Section for Psychology, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Nobels väg 9, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Renée M. Visser
- Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Nieuwe Achtergracht 129-B, 1018 WT Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Nina Becker
- Section for Psychology, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Nobels väg 9, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Lieke de Boer
- Department of Neuroscience, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Nobels väg 9, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden
- Aging Research Center, Tomtebodavägen 18A, 11330 Solna, Stockholms Lån, Sweden
| | - Armita Golkar
- Section for Psychology, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Nobels väg 9, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden
- Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Frescati Hagväg 14, 114 19, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Andreas Olsson
- Section for Psychology, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Nobels väg 9, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden
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Feng C, Yang Q, Azem L, Atanasova KM, Gu R, Luo W, Hoffman M, Lis S, Krueger F. An fMRI investigation of the intention-outcome interactions in second- and third-party punishment. Brain Imaging Behav 2021; 16:715-727. [PMID: 34533770 DOI: 10.1007/s11682-021-00555-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/31/2021] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
Abstract
Second-party punishment (SPP) and third-party punishment (TPP) are two basic forms of costly punishment that play an essential role in maintaining social orders. Despite scientific breakthroughs in understanding that costly punishment is driven by an integration of the wrongdoers' intention and the outcome of their actions, so far, few studies have compared the neurocognitive processes associated with the intention-outcome integration between SPP and TPP. Here, we combined economic exchange games measuring SPP and TPP with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to compare the neuropsychological architectures underlying the intention-outcome integration during one-shot interactions with anonymous partners across four types of norm violations (no norm, accidental, attempted, and intentional violations). Our behavioral findings showed that third-parties punished only attempted norm violations less frequently than second-parties. Our neuroimaging findings revealed higher activities in the right temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) for attempted norm violations during TPP relative to SPP; more activities in these regions with less punishment frequency; and enhancement of functional connectivity of the right TPJ with the right dlPFC and dorsomedial PFC. Our findings demonstrated specific psychological and neural mechanisms of intention-outcome interactions between SPP and TPP -helping to unravel the complex neurocognitive processes of costly punishment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chunliang Feng
- Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences, Ministry of Education, China; School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, and Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.
| | - Qun Yang
- Department of Psychology, Jing Hengyi School of Education, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Lydia Azem
- Center of Psychological Psychotherapy, ZPP, Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Konstantina M Atanasova
- Institute of Psychiatric and Psychosomatic Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim; Medical Faculty, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Ruolei Gu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Beijing, China.,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Wenbo Luo
- Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, China
| | - Morris Hoffman
- Second Judicial District, State of Colorado, Denver, CO, USA
| | - Stefanie Lis
- Institute of Psychiatric and Psychosomatic Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim; Medical Faculty, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Frank Krueger
- School of Systems Biology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA. .,Department of Psychology, University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany.
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8
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Undeger I, Visser RM, Olsson A. Neural Pattern Similarity Unveils the Integration of Social Information and Aversive Learning. Cereb Cortex 2020; 30:5410-5419. [PMID: 32494810 PMCID: PMC7472208 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhaa122] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2019] [Revised: 04/17/2020] [Accepted: 04/21/2020] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Attributing intentions to others' actions is important for learning to avoid their potentially harmful consequences. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging multivariate pattern analysis to investigate how the brain integrates information about others' intentions with the aversive outcome of their actions. In an interactive aversive learning task, participants (n = 33) were scanned while watching two alleged coparticipants (confederates)-one making choices intentionally and the other unintentionally-leading to aversive (a mild shock) or safe (no shock) outcomes to the participant. We assessed the trial-by-trial changes in participants' neural activation patterns related to observing the coparticipants and experiencing the outcome of their choices. Participants reported a higher number of shocks, more discomfort, and more anger to shocks given by the intentional player. Intentionality enhanced responses to aversive actions in the insula, anterior cingulate cortex, inferior frontal gyrus, dorsal medial prefrontal cortex, and the anterior superior temporal sulcus. Our findings indicate that neural pattern similarities index the integration of social and threat information across the cortex.
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Affiliation(s)
- Irem Undeger
- Section for Psychology, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm 171 77, Sweden
| | - Renée M Visser
- Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, 1018 WT, The Netherlands
| | - Andreas Olsson
- Section for Psychology, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm 171 77, Sweden
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9
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Quan R, Wu Z, Guo W, He L, Fang P, Gong P. The BDNF Val66Met polymorphism impacts victim's moral emotions following interpersonal transgression. Scand J Psychol 2020; 62:7-12. [PMID: 32815193 DOI: 10.1111/sjop.12678] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2020] [Accepted: 06/30/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Immoral behaviors make individuals abominate and punish transgressors. Inspired by the associations between the Val66Met polymorphism of brain-derived neurotropic factor (BDNF) gene and emotional responses following negative events, we investigated whether this polymorphism was also associated moral emotions such as punishment and forgiveness following interpersonal transgression. To do so, we categorized 340 individuals according to the BDNF Val66Met and assessed moral emotions by using 12 hypothetic scenarios in different conditions of intention and interpersonal consequence. The results indicated that this polymorphism was significantly associated with moral aversion and punishment towards transgressors. Victims with the Val/Val genotype expressed less aversion and punishment than the Met carriers, regardless of intention and interpersonal consequence. Moreover, this polymorphism was associated with forgiveness. Victims with the Val/Val genotype expressed more forgiveness than the Met carriers. Taken together, these findings highlight the importance of the BDNF Val66Met to moral emotions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rui Quan
- College of Life Science, Northwest University, Xi'an, 710069, China
| | - Zhenzhen Wu
- College of Life Science, Northwest University, Xi'an, 710069, China
| | - Wenxuan Guo
- College of Life Science, Northwest University, Xi'an, 710069, China
| | - Linlin He
- College of Life Science, Northwest University, Xi'an, 710069, China
| | - Pengpeng Fang
- College of Life Science, Northwest University, Xi'an, 710069, China
| | - Pingyuan Gong
- College of Life Science, Northwest University, Xi'an, 710069, China.,College of Medicine, Northwest University, Xi'an, 710069, China.,Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Animal Conservation, Northwest University, Xi'an, 710069, China.,Institute of Population and Health, Northwest University, Xi'an, 710069, China
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10
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Yang J, Zhang H, Ni J, De Dreu CKW, Ma Y. Within-group synchronization in the prefrontal cortex associates with intergroup conflict. Nat Neurosci 2020; 23:754-760. [PMID: 32341541 DOI: 10.1038/s41593-020-0630-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 55] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2019] [Accepted: 03/23/2020] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Individuals immersed in groups sometimes lose their individuality, take risks they would normally avoid and approach outsiders with unprovoked hostility. In this study, we identified within-group neural synchronization in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC) and the right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) as a candidate mechanism underlying intergroup hostility. We organized 546 individuals into 91 three-versus-three-person intergroup competitions, induced in-group bonding or no-bonding control manipulation and measured neural activity and within-group synchronization using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. After in-group bonding (versus control), individuals gave more money to in-group members than to out-group members and contributed more money to outcompete their rivals. In-group bonding decreased rDLPFC activity and increased functional connectivity between the rDLPFC and the rTPJ. Especially during the out-group attack, in-group bonding also increased within-group synchronization in both the rDLPFC and the rTPJ, and within-group rDLPFC synchronization positively correlated with intergroup hostility. Within-group synchronized reduction in prefrontal activity might explain how in-group bonding leads to impulsive and collective hostility toward outsiders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiaxin Yang
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Key Laboratory of Brain Imaging and Connectomics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Hejing Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Key Laboratory of Brain Imaging and Connectomics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Jun Ni
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Key Laboratory of Brain Imaging and Connectomics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Carsten K W De Dreu
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.,Center for Research in Experimental Economics and Political Decision Making, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Yina Ma
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Key Laboratory of Brain Imaging and Connectomics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
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11
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Cui F, Wang C, Cao Q, Jiao C. Social hierarchies in third-party punishment: A behavioral and ERP study. Biol Psychol 2019; 146:107722. [PMID: 31226446 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2019.107722] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/06/2019] [Revised: 06/16/2019] [Accepted: 06/17/2019] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Third-party punishment refers to the punishment imposed by a party whose benefit is not directly affected by any norm violations. The present study using a modified Dictator Game explored how social statuses of the involved parties modulate punishment decisions of a third-party. Systematic manipulation of the dictators' and recipients' status revealed that: higher recipient status correlated with more severe punishment, but no effect of the dictator's. We further focused on the neural underlying of this effect using ERPs. An interaction of recipient's status × fairness was observed on MFN such that only for a high-status recipient, larger amplitude was triggered by unfair offers comparing to fair offers. On LPC, the largest amplitude was observed when the offer was fair and the recipient had medium-status. These findings suggested: participants consider unfair offers proposed to high-status recipients as more norm-violating and they may evaluate the offers from the perspective of the recipient.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fang Cui
- College of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China; Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Affective and Social Cognitive Science, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China; Center for Brain Disorders and Cognitive Neuroscience, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
| | - Chengyao Wang
- College of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
| | - Qiongwen Cao
- Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA
| | - Can Jiao
- College of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China.
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12
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Gao X, Yu H, Sáez I, Blue PR, Zhu L, Hsu M, Zhou X. Distinguishing neural correlates of context-dependent advantageous- and disadvantageous-inequity aversion. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2018; 115:E7680-E7689. [PMID: 30061413 PMCID: PMC6099874 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1802523115] [Citation(s) in RCA: 49] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Humans can integrate social contextual information into decision-making processes to adjust their responses toward inequity. This context dependency emerges when individuals receive more (i.e., advantageous inequity) or less (i.e., disadvantageous inequity) than others. However, it is not clear whether context-dependent processing of advantageous and disadvantageous inequity involves differential neurocognitive mechanisms. Here, we used fMRI to address this question by combining an interactive game that modulates social contexts (e.g., interpersonal guilt) with computational models that enable us to characterize individual weights on inequity aversion. In each round, the participant played a dot estimation task with an anonymous coplayer. The coplayer would receive pain stimulation with 50% probability when either of them responded incorrectly. At the end of each round, the participant completed a variant of dictator game, which determined payoffs for him/herself and the coplayer. Computational modeling demonstrated the context dependency of inequity aversion: when causing pain to the coplayer (i.e., guilt context), participants cared more about the advantageous inequity and became more tolerant of the disadvantageous inequity, compared with other conditions. Consistently, neuroimaging results suggested the two types of inequity were associated with differential neurocognitive substrates. While the context-dependent processing of advantageous inequity was associated with social- and mentalizing-related processes, involving left anterior insula, right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, the context-dependent processing of disadvantageous inequity was primarily associated with emotion- and conflict-related processes, involving left posterior insula, right amygdala, and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. These results extend our understanding of decision-making processes related to inequity aversion.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaoxue Gao
- Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- Key Laboratory of Machine Perception, Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Hongbo Yu
- Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6GG, United Kingdom
| | - Ignacio Sáez
- Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
- Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
| | - Philip R Blue
- Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- Key Laboratory of Machine Perception, Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Lusha Zhu
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- Key Laboratory of Machine Perception, Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- Peking University-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Ming Hsu
- Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
- Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720
| | - Xiaolin Zhou
- Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China;
- School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- Key Laboratory of Machine Perception, Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- Peking University-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
- Institute of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Zhejiang Normal University, Zhejiang 321004, China
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13
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Decomposing Gratitude: Representation and Integration of Cognitive Antecedents of Gratitude in the Brain. J Neurosci 2018; 38:4886-4898. [PMID: 29735557 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.2944-17.2018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2017] [Revised: 04/07/2018] [Accepted: 04/17/2018] [Indexed: 01/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Gratitude is a typical social-moral emotion that plays a crucial role in maintaining human cooperative interpersonal relationship. Although neural correlates of gratitude have been investigated, the neurocognitive processes that lead to gratitude, namely, the representation and integration of its cognitive antecedents, remain largely unknown. Here, we combined fMRI and a human social interactive task to investigate how benefactor's cost and beneficiary's benefit, two critical antecedents of gratitude, are encoded and integrated in beneficiary's brain, and how the neural processing of gratitude is converted to reciprocity. A coplayer decided whether to help a human participant (either male or female) avoid pain at his/her own monetary cost; the participants could transfer monetary points to the benefactor with the knowledge that the benefactor was unaware of this transfer. By independently manipulating monetary cost and the degree of pain reduction, we could identify the neural signatures of benefactor's cost and recipient's benefit and examine how they were integrated. Recipient's self-benefit was encoded in reward-sensitive regions (e.g., ventral striatum), whereas benefactor-cost was encoded in regions associated with mentalizing (e.g., temporoparietal junction). Gratitude was represented in perigenual anterior cingulate cortex (pgACC), the strength of which correlated with trait gratitude. Dynamic causal modeling showed that the neural signals representing benefactor-cost and self-benefit passed to pgACC via effective connectivities, suggesting an integrative role of pgACC in generating gratitude. Moreover, gyral ACC plays an intermediary role in converting gratitude representation into reciprocal behaviors. Our findings provide a neural mechanistic account of gratitude and its role in social-moral life.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Gratitude plays an integral role in subjective well-being and harmonious interpersonal relationships. However, the neurocognitive processes through which various components and antecedents of gratitude are integrated remain largely unknown. We developed a new interpersonal paradigm to independently and parametrically manipulate two antecedents of gratitude in a helping context, namely, the benefit to beneficiary and the cost to benefactor, to examine their representation and integration in the beneficiary's brain using fMRI. We found the neural encoding of self-benefit and benefactor-cost in reward- and mentalizing-related brain areas, respectively. More importantly, by examining effective connectivity, we showed that these componential signals are passed to perigenual anterior cingulate cortex, which tracks trial-by-trial gratitude levels. Our study thus provides a neural mechanistic account of gratitude.
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14
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Li H, Chen Q, Lu J, Qiu J. Brain Structural Bases of Tendency to Forgive: evidence from a young adults sample using voxel-based morphometry. Sci Rep 2017; 7:16856. [PMID: 29203803 PMCID: PMC5715096 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-16868-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2017] [Accepted: 11/18/2017] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Tendency to forgive refers to one's global dispositional level of forgiveness across situations and relationships. Brain imaging studies examined activation patterns underlying forgiving response, yet focal differences in brain structures related to tendency to forgive have never been investigated. In this study, voxel-based morphometry was used to investigate relations between gray matter/white matter volume (GMV/WMV) and individual differences in tendency to forgive in a large young sample. Participants were 199 young students (60 men) who completed the tendency to forgive scale (TTF) and underwent an anatomical magnetic resonance imaging scan. Results showed that higher TTF scores were associated with larger GMV in the regions of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and smaller GMV in the regions of the right insular cortex and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). Moreover, higher TTF scores were also related to smaller WMV in the regions of the left IFG. Together, these findings suggest structural variations for individual differences in the tendency to forgive, distributed across different brain regions associated with empathic response and cognitive control.
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Affiliation(s)
- Haijiang Li
- Department of Psychology, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, 200234, China
| | - Qunlin Chen
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing, 400715, China
- Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China
| | - Jiamei Lu
- Department of Psychology, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, 200234, China.
| | - Jiang Qiu
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing, 400715, China
- Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China
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15
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Zinchenko O, Klucharev V. Commentary: The Emerging Neuroscience of Third-Party Punishment. Front Hum Neurosci 2017; 11:512. [PMID: 29114214 PMCID: PMC5660711 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2017.00512] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2017] [Accepted: 10/09/2017] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Oksana Zinchenko
- Centre for Cognition and Decision Making, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia
| | - Vasily Klucharev
- Centre for Cognition and Decision Making, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia.,Department of Psychology, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia
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16
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Parsing the Behavioral and Brain Mechanisms of Third-Party Punishment. J Neurosci 2017; 36:9420-34. [PMID: 27605616 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.4499-15.2016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2015] [Accepted: 07/23/2016] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
UNLABELLED The evolved capacity for third-party punishment is considered crucial to the emergence and maintenance of elaborate human social organization and is central to the modern provision of fairness and justice within society. Although it is well established that the mental state of the offender and the severity of the harm he caused are the two primary predictors of punishment decisions, the precise cognitive and brain mechanisms by which these distinct components are evaluated and integrated into a punishment decision are poorly understood. Using fMRI, here we implement a novel experimental design to functionally dissociate the mechanisms underlying evaluation, integration, and decision that were conflated in previous studies of third-party punishment. Behaviorally, the punishment decision is primarily defined by a superadditive interaction between harm and mental state, with subjects weighing the interaction factor more than the single factors of harm and mental state. On a neural level, evaluation of harms engaged brain areas associated with affective and somatosensory processing, whereas mental state evaluation primarily recruited circuitry involved in mentalization. Harm and mental state evaluations are integrated in medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate structures, with the amygdala acting as a pivotal hub of the interaction between harm and mental state. This integrated information is used by the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex at the time of the decision to assign an appropriate punishment through a distributed coding system. Together, these findings provide a blueprint of the brain mechanisms by which neutral third parties render punishment decisions. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Punishment undergirds large-scale cooperation and helps dispense criminal justice. Yet it is currently unknown precisely how people assess the mental states of offenders, evaluate the harms they caused, and integrate those two components into a single punishment decision. Using a new design, we isolated these three processes, identifying the distinct brain systems and activities that enable each. Additional findings suggest that the amygdala plays a crucial role in mediating the interaction of mental state and harm information, whereas the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex plays a crucial, final-stage role, both in integrating mental state and harm information and in selecting a suitable punishment amount. These findings deepen our understanding of how punishment decisions are made, which may someday help to improve them.
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17
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Abstract
Mature moral judgments rely both on a perpetrator’s intent to cause harm, and also on the actual harm caused–even when unintended. Much prior research asks how intent information is represented neurally, but little asks how even unintended harms influence judgment. We interrogate the psychological and neural basis of this process, focusing especially on the role of empathy for the victim of a harmful act. Using fMRI, we found that the ‘empathy for pain’ network was involved in encoding harmful outcomes and integrating harmfulness information for different types of moral judgments, and individual differences in the extent to which this network was active during encoding and integration of harmfulness information determined severity of moral judgments. Additionally, activity in the network was down-regulated for acceptability, but not blame, judgments for accidental harm condition, suggesting that these two types of moral evaluations are neurobiologically dissociable. These results support a model of “empathic blame”, whereby the perceived suffering of a victim colors moral judgment of an accidental harmdoer.
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18
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Nußberger AM, Montgomery M, Luo Y, Yu H. Commentary: Parsing the Behavioral and Brain Mechanisms of Third-Party Punishment. Front Neurosci 2017; 11:374. [PMID: 28706474 PMCID: PMC5489590 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2017.00374] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2017] [Accepted: 06/15/2017] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Anne-Marie Nußberger
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of OxfordOxford, United Kingdom
| | - Mary Montgomery
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of OxfordOxford, United Kingdom
| | - Yingyi Luo
- Institute of Linguistics, Chinese Academy of Social SciencesBeijing, China
- Faculty of Science and Engineering, Waseda UniversityTokyo, Japan
| | - Hongbo Yu
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of OxfordOxford, United Kingdom
- Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Peking UniversityBeijing, China
- *Correspondence: Hongbo Yu
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19
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Patil I, Calò M, Fornasier F, Young L, Silani G. Neuroanatomical correlates of forgiving unintentional harms. Sci Rep 2017; 7:45967. [PMID: 28382935 PMCID: PMC5382676 DOI: 10.1038/srep45967] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2016] [Accepted: 03/10/2017] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Mature moral judgments rely on the consideration of a perpetrator’s mental state as well as harmfulness of the outcomes produced. Prior work has focused primarily on the functional correlates of how intent information is neurally represented for moral judgments, but few studies have investigated whether individual differences in neuroanatomy can also explain variation in moral judgments. In the current study, we conducted voxel-based morphometry analyses to address this question. We found that local grey matter volume in the left anterior superior temporal sulcus, a region in the functionally defined theory of mind or mentalizing network, was associated with the degree to which participants relied on information about innocent intentions to forgive accidental harms. Our findings provide further support for the key role of mentalizing in the forgiveness of accidental harms and contribute preliminary evidence for the neuroanatomical basis of individual differences in moral judgments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Indrajeet Patil
- Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati, Neuroscience Sector, Trieste, Italy.,Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | | | | | - Liane Young
- Department of Psychology, Boston College, Boston, USA
| | - Giorgia Silani
- Department of Applied Psychology: Health, Development, Enhancement and Intervention, University of Vienna, Austria
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20
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Patil I, Young L, Sinay V, Gleichgerrcht E. Elevated moral condemnation of third-party violations in multiple sclerosis patients. Soc Neurosci 2016; 12:308-329. [DOI: 10.1080/17470919.2016.1175380] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/30/2023]
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21
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Beyens U, Yu H, Han T, Zhang L, Zhou X. The strength of a remorseful heart: psychological and neural basis of how apology emolliates reactive aggression and promotes forgiveness. Front Psychol 2015; 6:1611. [PMID: 26579005 PMCID: PMC4621397 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01611] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/21/2015] [Accepted: 10/06/2015] [Indexed: 01/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Apology from the offender facilitates forgiveness and thus has the power to restore a broken relationship. Here we showed that apology from the offender not only reduces the victim’s propensity to react aggressively but also alters the victim’s implicit attitude and neural responses toward the offender. We adopted an interpersonal competitive game which consisted of two phases. In the first, “passive” phase, participants were punished by high or low pain stimulation chosen by the opponents when losing a trial. During the break, participants received a note from each of the opponents, one apologizing and the other not. The second, “active” phase, involved a change of roles where participants could punish the two opponents after winning. Experiment 1 included an Implicit Association Test (IAT) in between the reception of notes and the second phase. Experiment 2 recorded participants’ brain potentials in the second phase. We found that participants reacted less aggressively toward the apologizing opponent than the non-apologizing opponent in the active phase. Moreover, female, but not male, participants responded faster in the IAT when positive and negative words were associated with the apologizing and the non-apologizing opponents, respectively, suggesting that female participants had enhanced implicit attitude toward the apologizing opponent. Furthermore, the late positive potential (LPP), a component in brain potentials associated with affective/motivational reactions, was larger when viewing the portrait of the apologizing than the non-apologizing opponent when participants subsequently selected low punishment. Additionally, the LPP elicited by the apologizing opponents’ portrait was larger in the female than in the male participants. These findings confirm the apology’s role in reducing reactive aggression and further reveal that this forgiveness process engages, at least in female, an enhancement of the victim’s implicit attitude and a prosocial motivational change toward the offender.
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Affiliation(s)
- Urielle Beyens
- Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University , Beijing, China ; Department of Psychology, Peking University , Beijing, China
| | - Hongbo Yu
- Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University , Beijing, China ; Department of Psychology, Peking University , Beijing, China
| | - Ting Han
- Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University , Beijing, China ; Department of Psychology, Peking University , Beijing, China
| | - Li Zhang
- Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University , Beijing, China ; Department of Psychology, Peking University , Beijing, China
| | - Xiaolin Zhou
- Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University , Beijing, China ; Department of Psychology, Peking University , Beijing, China ; Key Laboratory of Machine Perception (Ministry of Education), Peking University , Beijing, China ; Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University , Beijing, China ; PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University , Beijing, China
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