A unified neural account of contextual and individual differences in altruism
Altruism is critical for cooperation and productivity in human societies but is known to vary strongly across contexts and individuals. The origin of these differences is largely unknown, but may in principle reflect variations in different neurocognitive processes that temporally unfold during altr...
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
eLife Sciences Publications Ltd
2023-02-01
|
| Series: | eLife |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://elifesciences.org/articles/80667 |
| _version_ | 1811168941398032384 |
|---|---|
| author | Jie Hu Arkady Konovalov Christian C Ruff |
| author_facet | Jie Hu Arkady Konovalov Christian C Ruff |
| author_sort | Jie Hu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Altruism is critical for cooperation and productivity in human societies but is known to vary strongly across contexts and individuals. The origin of these differences is largely unknown, but may in principle reflect variations in different neurocognitive processes that temporally unfold during altruistic decision making (ranging from initial perceptual processing via value computations to final integrative choice mechanisms). Here, we elucidate the neural origins of individual and contextual differences in altruism by examining altruistic choices in different inequality contexts with computational modeling and electroencephalography (EEG). Our results show that across all contexts and individuals, wealth distribution choices recruit a similar late decision process evident in model-predicted evidence accumulation signals over parietal regions. Contextual and individual differences in behavior related instead to initial processing of stimulus-locked inequality-related value information in centroparietal and centrofrontal sensors, as well as to gamma-band synchronization of these value-related signals with parietal response-locked evidence-accumulation signals. Our findings suggest separable biological bases for individual and contextual differences in altruism that relate to differences in the initial processing of choice-relevant information. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T16:34:57Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c5fb934a1e814871ad9ad712d7aba12e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2050-084X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T16:34:57Z |
| publishDate | 2023-02-01 |
| publisher | eLife Sciences Publications Ltd |
| record_format | Article |
| series | eLife |
| spelling | doaj.art-c5fb934a1e814871ad9ad712d7aba12e2023-02-08T14:33:13ZengeLife Sciences Publications LtdeLife2050-084X2023-02-011210.7554/eLife.80667A unified neural account of contextual and individual differences in altruismJie Hu0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0991-9254Arkady Konovalov1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9448-6659Christian C Ruff2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3964-2364Zurich Center for Neuroeconomics, Department of Economics, University of Zurich, Zurich, SwitzerlandZurich Center for Neuroeconomics, Department of Economics, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; Centre for Human Brain Health, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United KingdomZurich Center for Neuroeconomics, Department of Economics, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; University Research Priority Program 'Adaptive Brain Circuits in Development and Learning' (URPP AdaBD), University of Zurich, Zurich, SwitzerlandAltruism is critical for cooperation and productivity in human societies but is known to vary strongly across contexts and individuals. The origin of these differences is largely unknown, but may in principle reflect variations in different neurocognitive processes that temporally unfold during altruistic decision making (ranging from initial perceptual processing via value computations to final integrative choice mechanisms). Here, we elucidate the neural origins of individual and contextual differences in altruism by examining altruistic choices in different inequality contexts with computational modeling and electroencephalography (EEG). Our results show that across all contexts and individuals, wealth distribution choices recruit a similar late decision process evident in model-predicted evidence accumulation signals over parietal regions. Contextual and individual differences in behavior related instead to initial processing of stimulus-locked inequality-related value information in centroparietal and centrofrontal sensors, as well as to gamma-band synchronization of these value-related signals with parietal response-locked evidence-accumulation signals. Our findings suggest separable biological bases for individual and contextual differences in altruism that relate to differences in the initial processing of choice-relevant information.https://elifesciences.org/articles/80667altruisminequalityevidence accumulationdecision processgamma-band synchronization |
| spellingShingle | Jie Hu Arkady Konovalov Christian C Ruff A unified neural account of contextual and individual differences in altruism eLife altruism inequality evidence accumulation decision process gamma-band synchronization |
| title | A unified neural account of contextual and individual differences in altruism |
| title_full | A unified neural account of contextual and individual differences in altruism |
| title_fullStr | A unified neural account of contextual and individual differences in altruism |
| title_full_unstemmed | A unified neural account of contextual and individual differences in altruism |
| title_short | A unified neural account of contextual and individual differences in altruism |
| title_sort | unified neural account of contextual and individual differences in altruism |
| topic | altruism inequality evidence accumulation decision process gamma-band synchronization |
| url | https://elifesciences.org/articles/80667 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT jiehu aunifiedneuralaccountofcontextualandindividualdifferencesinaltruism AT arkadykonovalov aunifiedneuralaccountofcontextualandindividualdifferencesinaltruism AT christiancruff aunifiedneuralaccountofcontextualandindividualdifferencesinaltruism AT jiehu unifiedneuralaccountofcontextualandindividualdifferencesinaltruism AT arkadykonovalov unifiedneuralaccountofcontextualandindividualdifferencesinaltruism AT christiancruff unifiedneuralaccountofcontextualandindividualdifferencesinaltruism |