689 research outputs found
A comparative fMRI meta-analysis of altruistic and strategic decisions to give
The decision to share resources is fundamental for cohesive societies. Humans can be motivated to give for many reasons. Some generosity incurs a definite cost, with no extrinsic reward to the act, but instead provides intrinsic satisfaction (labelled here as 'altruistic' giving). Other giving behaviours are done with the prospect of improving one's own situation via reciprocity, reputation, or public good (labelled here as 'strategic' giving). These contexts differ in the source, certainty, and timing of rewards as well as the inferences made about others' mental states. We executed a combined statistical map and coordinate-based fMRI meta-analysis of decisions to give (36 studies, 1150 participants). Methods included a novel approach for accommodating variable signal dropout between studies in meta-analysis. Results reveal consistent, cross-paradigm neural correlates of each decision type, commonalities, and informative differences. Relative to being selfish, altruistic and strategic giving activate overlapping reward networks. However, strategic decisions showed greater activity in striatal regions than altruistic choices. Altruistic giving, more than strategic, activated subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC). Ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is consistently involved during generous decisions and processing across a posterior to anterior axis differentiates the altruistic/strategic context. Posterior vmPFC was preferentially recruited during altruistic decisions. Regions of the 'social brain' showed distinct patterns of activity between choice types, reflecting the different use of theory of mind in the two contexts. We provide the consistent neural correlates of decisions to give, and show that many will depend on the source of incentives
The impact of mindfulness meditation on social and moral behavior: Does mindfulness enhance other-oriented motivation or decrease monetary reward salience?
This perspective article provides an overview of the impact of mindfulness
meditation (MM) on social and moral behavior. In mindfulness research,
prosocial behavior has been operationalized as helping behavior, altruistic
redistribution of funds, reparative behavior, or monetary donation. Studies
concerning moral behavior are still scarce. Despite inconsistent evidence,
several studies found a beneficial effect of mindfulness on prosocial outcomes
(i.e., a higher propensity to spend or give away money for the sake of
other individuals). However, since the employed tasks were reward-based,
participants’ decisions also directly affected their own payoff by reducing it.
Crucially, MM also affects self-control circuitry and reduces reward-seeking
behaviors and reward salience by making rewards less tempting. We have
discussed evidence suggesting how challenging it may be to dissociate
the specific weight of enhanced other-oriented motivation from one of
the decreased monetary reward salience in explaining meditators’ behavior.
Future higher-quality studies are needed to address this open issue
A feature-based network analysis and fMRI meta-analysis reveal three distinct types of prosocial decisions
Tasks that measure correlates of prosocial decision-making share one common feature: agents can make choices that increase the welfare of a beneficiary. However, prosocial decisions vary widely as a function of other task features. The diverse ways that prosociality is defined and the heterogeneity of prosocial decisions have created challenges for interpreting findings across studies and identifying their neural correlates. To overcome these challenges, we aimed to organize the prosocial decision-making task space of neuroimaging studies. We conducted a systematic search for studies in which participants made decisions to increase the welfare of others during functional magnetic resonance imaging. We identified shared and distinct features of these tasks and employed an unsupervised graph-based approach to assess how various forms of prosocial decision-making are related in terms of their low-level components (e.g. task features like potential cost to the agent or potential for reciprocity). Analyses uncovered three clusters of prosocial decisions, which we labeled as cooperation, equity and altruism. This feature-based representation of the task structure was supported by results of a neuroimaging meta-analysis that each type of prosocial decisions recruited diverging neural systems. Results clarify some of the existing heterogeneity in how prosociality is conceptualized and generate insight for future research and task paradigm development
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When and why do we value the lives of others? Insights from brain, body and behaviour
Altruistic behaviours benefit others at a cost to the self. They can be motivated by valuing the lives and wellbeing of other people. However, this value can be inconsistent, creating biases in who is valued and receives help. In this thesis, a literature review differentiates motivations for prosocial behaviour and then studies using neuroimaging, physiology, and behaviour explore the situational and individual factors that determine the value of otherpeople.Paper 1 uses fMRI meta-analysis to distinguish between altruistic decisions, driven by intrinsic value, and strategic prosocial decisions, which could be for extrinsic gain. Results demonstrate overlap in reward-related regions, activations unique to each context and differences between the two. Paper 2 presents a solution to an issue in fMRI meta-analysis. The following papers focus on altruistic contexts. Papers 3 and 4 identify the physiological (skin conductance) and neural (fMRI) correlates respectively of valuing lives at risk. Results show that this value can be biased by the number of people at risk, whether they are at home or abroad, and how many similar situations one has already seen. Papers 1, 3 and 4 suggest we are affected by events that happen to others and our ability to help them efficiently. Paper 5 tests whether this translates to curiosity and choices to find out about their fate or choices to avoid this knowledge. Results from a series of behavioural experiments show ‘wanting to know’ about an outcome depends on who it affects, who caused it, and whether it is positive or negative
Growing in generosity?:The effects of giving magnitude, target, and audience on the neural signature of giving in adolescence
Giving is essential for forming and maintaining social relationships, which is an important developmental task for adolescents. This pre-registered fMRI study investigated behavioral and neural correlates of adolescents’ (N = 128, ages 9 – 19 years) small versus large size giving in different social contexts related to target (i.e., giving to a friend or unfamiliar peer) and peer presence (i.e., anonymous versus audience giving). Participants gave more in the small size than large size condition, more to friends than to unfamiliar peers, and more in the audience compared to anonymous condition. Giving very small or large amounts was associated with increased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and anterior insula (AI), and older adolescents showed increased lateral and anterior PFC activation for small size giving. We observed activity in the intraparietal cortex (IPL), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and AI for giving to friends, but no age-related differences in this activity. Behaviorally, in contrast, we observed that older adolescents differentiated more in giving between friends and unfamiliar peers. Finally, we observed interactions between peer presence and target in the AI, and between giving magnitude and target in the precuneus. Together, findings reveal higher context-dependency of giving and more lateral PFC activity for small versus large giving in older adolescents
The role of social cognition in decision making
Successful decision making in a social setting depends on our ability to understand the intentions, emotions and beliefs of others. The mirror system allows us to understand other people's motor actions and action intentions. ‘Empathy’ allows us to understand and share emotions and sensations with others. ‘Theory of mind’ allows us to understand more abstract concepts such as beliefs or wishes in others. In all these cases, evidence has accumulated that we use the specific neural networks engaged in processing mental states in ourselves to understand the same mental states in others. However, the magnitude of the brain activity in these shared networks is modulated by contextual appraisal of the situation or the other person. An important feature of decision making in a social setting concerns the interaction of reason and emotion. We consider four domains where such interactions occur: our sense of fairness, altruistic punishment, trust and framing effects. In these cases, social motivations and emotions compete with each other, while higher-level control processes modulate the interactions of these low-level biases
Conceptual Challenges and Directions for Social Neuroscience
Social neuroscience has been enormously successful and is making major contributions to fields ranging from psychiatry to economics. Yet deep and interesting conceptual challenges abound. Is social information processing domain specific? Is it universal or susceptible to individual differences and effects of culture? Are there uniquely human social cognitive abilities? What is the “social brain,” and how do we map social psychological processes onto it? Animal models together with fMRI and other cognitive neuroscience approaches in humans are providing an unprecedented level of detail and many surprising results. It may well be that social neuroscience in the near future will give us an entirely new view of who we are, how we evolved, and what might be in store for the future of our species
Neurocomputational models of altruistic decision‐making and social motives: Advances, pitfalls, and future directions
This article discusses insights from computational models and social neuroscience into motivations, precursors, and mechanisms of altruistic decision-making and other-regard. We introduce theoretical and methodological tools for researchers who wish to adopt a multilevel, computational approach to study behaviors that promote others' welfare. Using examples from recent studies, we outline multiple mental and neural processes relevant to altruism. To this end, we integrate evidence from neuroimaging, psychology, economics, and formalized mathematical models. We introduce basic mechanisms—pertinent to a broad range of value-based decisions—and social emotions and cognitions commonly recruited when our decisions involve other people. Regarding the latter, we discuss how decomposing distinct facets of social processes can advance altruistic models and the development of novel, targeted interventions. We propose that an accelerated synthesis of computational approaches and social neuroscience represents a critical step towards a more comprehensive understanding of altruistic decision-making. We discuss the utility of this approach to study lifespan differences in social preference in late adulthood, a crucial future direction in aging global populations. Finally, we review potential pitfalls and recommendations for researchers interested in applying a computational approach to their research
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