Neural reward-related reactions to monetary gains for self and charity

The aim of the present study was to examine the neural signatures of gaining money for self and charity. Young adults (N = 31, 21–24 years of age) underwent fMRI scanning while they performed a task in which they could earn money for themselves and for a self-chosen charity by selecting one of two options with unknown outcomes. The results showed elevated activity in the ventral striatum when gaining for the self only and for self and charity, but not when gaining for charity only. However, increased ventral striatal activity when gaining for charity only was correlated with participants’ self-reported empathic concern and enjoyment when winning for charity. Empathic concern was also related to donating a larger proportion of earnings to charity after the MRI session. In short, these results reveal robust ventral striatal activity when gaining for oneself, but empathydependent individual differences in ventral striatal activity when gaining for charit

Neural reward related-reactions to monetar gains for self and charity are associated with donating behavior in adolescence

The aim of the current study was to examine neural signatures of gaining money for self and charity in adolescence. Participants (N = 160, aged 11–21) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging-scanning while performing a zero-sum vicarious reward task in which they could either earn money for themselves at the expense of charity, for a self-chosen charity at the expense of themselves, or for both parties. Afterwards, they could donate money to charity, which we used as a behavioral index of giving. Gaining for self and for both parties resulted in activity in the ventral striatum (specifically in the NAcc), but not gaining for charity. Interestingly, striatal activity when gaining for charity was positively related to individual differences in donation behavior and perspective taking. Dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, insula and precentral gyrus were active when gaining only for self, and temporal-parietal junction when gaining only for charity, relative to gaining for both parties (i.e. under equity deviation). Taken together, these findings show that striatal activity during vicarious gaining for charity depends on levels of perspective taking and predicts future acts of giving to charity. These findings provide insight in the individual differences in the subjective value of prosocial outcome

De ontwikkeling van het sociale brein: meer begrip van sociale en antisociale trajecten

Sociale vaardigheden zijn cruciaal voor een goede ontwikkeling van kind tot volwassene. In dit artikel bespreken we de ontwikkeling van het sociale brein, opgedeeld in verschillende hersennetwerken die betrokken zijn bij verschillende sociale vaardigheden. We richten ons met name op de adolescentie, een vormende periode, waarin jongeren zich kunnen ontwikkelen tot sociaal-betrokken volwassenen. Ook bespreken we wat bekend is over het functioneren van deze hersennetwerken bij jongeren die antisociaal gedrag vertonen, een groep jongeren die deels gekenmerkt wordt door afwijkend sociaal functioneren en het benadelen van anderen. De hersengebieden die zijn betrokken bij acceptatie en afwijzing en het ervaren van empathie zijn gevoelig voor onderlinge verschillen en omgevingsinvloeden, en lijken grotendeels uitgerijpt voor de adolescentie. Het hersennetwerk voor perspectief nemen ontwikkelt zich structureel en functioneel nog door gedurende de adolescentie. Ook wijken deze netwerken op verschillende manieren af bij jongeren die antisociaal gedrag vertonen; met name op het gebied van empathie en perspectief nemen.Pathways through Adolescenc

Сульфидная система в раннепротерозойских породах чечелеевского литолого-стратиграфического уровня Кировоградского мегаблока (Украинский щит)

На основе минералогических, изотопных и термобарогеохимических исследований прослежена эволюция сульфидной системы от исходных метаморфогенных до гидротермально-метасоматических ассоциаций. В рамках этой эволюции проведено сопоставление изотопного состава серы магнитных и немагнитных пирротинов.На основі мінералогічних, ізотопних і термобарогеохімічних досліджень простежено еволюцію сульфідної системи від вихідних метаморфогенних до гідротермально- метасоматичних асоціацій. В межах цієї еволюції проведено порівняння ізотопного складу сірки магнітних та немагнітних піротинів.On the base of mineralogical, isotopic and thermobarogeochemical investigations the evolution of sulfide system from host metamorphic to hydrothermal-metasomatic associations was trashed. At the frames of this evolution the comparison of isotopic composition of magnetic and nonmagnetic pyrrhotite sulfur was carried out

Realtime crowdsourcing with payment of idle workers in the Retainer Model

The realtime applications of crowdsourcing are a very promising topic, due to its high potentialities, for example in marketing, security or telecommunication applications. Realtime crowdsourcing ensures that solutions to a given problem are obtained in the shortest possible time using collective intelligence. In order to be ready to carry out any requested task in realtime, crowdworkers must be available at any time. Here we focus on the payment of crowdworkers and on the trade-off between the expected waiting time for a task to be carried out and the number of workers in the pool that should not become too large otherwise the total cost increases. In particular we consider the, so called, Retainer Model in which crowdworkers are paid in order to be ready to carry out any requested task in realtime. The Retainer Model considers an expected total cost which takes into account both the amount paid to a crowdworker to be in idle-state and the loss when the task is not completed in realtime. After checking the existence of a minimum cost we characterize the optimal number of crowdworkers, and suggest a practical and quick way to obtain it. Moreover, we analyse the sensitivity of the optimal number of crowdworkers with respect to different task intensities

Familiarity and Audience Effects on Giving

Giving is often characterized by the conflicting decision to give up something of value to benefit others. Recent evidence indicated that giving is highly context dependent. To unravel the neural correlates of social context, in this study, young adults (n = 32) performed a novel giving functional magnetic resonance imaging paradigm, in which they divided coins between self and known (friends) or unknown (unfamiliar) others. A second manipulation included presence of others; giving decisions were made with an audience or anonymously. Results showed that participants gave more coins to a friend than to an unfamiliar other and generally gave more in the presence of an audience. On a neural level, medial prefrontal cortex and the right insula were most active for relatively generous decisions. These findings possibly reflect that aversion of norm deviation or fairness concerns drive differences in the frequency of giving. Next, activation in separate subregions of the TPJ-IPL (i.e., a region that comprises the temporo-parietal junction and inferior parietal lobule) was found for target and audience contexts. Overall, our findings suggest that donation size and social contextual information are processed in separable brain regions and that TPJ-IPL plays an important role in balancing self- and other-oriented motives related to the social context