Causes of social reward differences encoded in human brain

2012 ◽  
Vol 107 (5) ◽  
pp. 1403-1412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Vostroknutov ◽  
Philippe N. Tobler ◽  
Aldo Rustichini

Rewards may be due to skill, effort, and luck, and the social perception of inequality in rewards among individuals may depend on what produced the inequality. Rewards due to skill produce a conflict: higher outcomes of others in this case are considered deserved, and this counters incentives to reduce inequality. However, they also signal superior skill and for this reason induce strong negative affect in those who perform less, which increases the incentive to reduce the inequality. The neurobiological mechanisms underlying evaluation of rewards due to skill, effort, and luck are still unknown. We scanned brain activity of subjects as they perceived monetary rewards caused by skill, effort, or luck. Subjects could subtract from others. Subtraction was larger, everything else being equal, in luck but increased more as the difference in outcomes grew in skill. Similarly, reward-related activation in medial orbitofrontal cortex was more sensitive to the difference in relative outcomes in skill trials. Orbitofrontal activation reflecting comparative reward advantage predicted by how much subjects reduced unfavorable reward inequality later on in the trial. Thus medial orbitofrontal cortex activity reflects the causes of reward and predicts actions that reduce inequality.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah L. Dziura ◽  
James C. Thompson

AbstractSocial functioning involves learning about the social networks in which we live and interact; knowing not just our friends, but also who is friends with our friends. Here we utilized a novel incidental learning paradigm and representational similarity analysis (RSA), a functional MRI multivariate pattern analysis technique, to examine the relationship between learning social networks and the brain's response to the faces within the networks. We found that accuracy of learning face pair relationships through observation is correlated with neural similarity patterns to those pairs in the left temporoparietal junction (TPJ), the left fusiform gyrus, and the subcallosal ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), all areas previously implicated in social cognition. This model was also significant in portions of the cerebellum and thalamus. These results show that the similarity of neural patterns represent how accurately we understand the closeness of any two faces within a network, regardless of their true relationship. Our findings indicate that these areas of the brain not only process knowledge and understanding of others, but also support learning relations between individuals in groups.Significance StatementKnowledge of the relationships between people is an important skill that helps us interact in a highly social world. While much is known about how the human brain represents the identity, goals, and intentions of others, less is known about how we represent knowledge about social relationships between others. In this study, we used functional neuroimaging to demonstrate that patterns in human brain activity represent memory for recently learned social connections.


2020 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. S6-S7
Author(s):  
A. Komorowski ◽  
A. Singh ◽  
R. Vidal ◽  
M. Murgaš ◽  
T. Pena-Centeno ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Martins ◽  
L. Rademacher ◽  
A. S. Gabay ◽  
R. Taylor ◽  
J. A. Richey ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTSocial incentives (rewards or punishments) motivate human learning and behaviour, and alterations in the brain circuits involved in the processing social incentives have been linked with several neuropsychiatric disorders. However, questions still remain about the exact neural substrates implicated in social incentive processing. Here, we conducted four Anisotropic Effect Size Signed Differential Mapping voxel-based meta-analyses of fMRI studies investigating the neural correlates of the anticipation and receipt of social rewards and punishments using the Social Incentive Delay task. We map the regions involved in each of these four processes in the human brain, identify decreases in the BOLD signal during the anticipation of both social reward and punishment avoidance that were missed in individual studies due to a lack of power, and characterise the effect size and direction of changes in the BOLD signal for each brain area. Our results provide a better understanding of the brain circuitry involved in social incentive processing and can inform hypotheses about potentially disrupted brain areas linked with dysfunctional social incentive processing during disease.HighlightsVoxel-based meta-analysis of the neural underpinnings of social incentive processingWe map the brain regions involved in the processing of social incentives in humansWe identify new regions missed in individual studies as a result of lack of powerOur work can inform research on pathological brain processing of social incentives


Crisis ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (6) ◽  
pp. 422-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masatsugu Orui

Abstract. Background: Monitoring of suicide rates in the recovery phase following a devastating disaster has been limited. Aim: We report on a 7-year follow-up of the suicide rates in the area affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake, which occurred in March 2011. Method: This descriptive study covered the period from March 2009 to February 2018. Period analysis was used to divide the 108-month study period into nine segments, in which suicide rates were compared with national averages using Poisson distribution. Results: Male suicide rates in the affected area from March 2013 to February 2014 increased to a level higher than the national average. After subsequently dropping, the male rates from March 2016 to February 2018 re-increased and showed a greater difference compared with the national averages. The difference became significant in the period from March 2017 to February 2018 ( p = .047). Limitations: Specific reasons for increasing the rates in the recovery phase were not determined. Conclusion: The termination of the provision of free temporary housing might be influential in this context. Provision of temporary housing was terminated from 2016, which increased economic hardship among needy evacuees. Furthermore, disruption of the social connectedness in the temporary housing may have had an influence. Our findings suggest the necessity of suicide rate monitoring even in the recovery phase.


Author(s):  
A. F. Belyaev ◽  
G. E. Piskunova

Introduction. One of the main tools of an osteopath are soft tissue techniques, which have a number of particular qualities such as minimization of force and duration of indirect techniques with an emphasis on muscle and ligamentous structures; combination of gestures, tendency to maximal relaxation and exclusion of direct action on pathological symptoms such as tension, overtone and pain. Minimization of the force applied during the performance of soft tissue techniques often invites a question whether there are differences between the usual touch and the therapeutic touch of an osteopath.Goal of research - to reveal the changes in the bioelectrical activity of the cerebral cortex arising in the process of osteopathic treatment in order to prove its specifi city in comparison with nonspecifi c tactile stimulation (neutral touch).Materials and methods. 75 people were examined with the use of multiparameter analysis of multichannel EEG in different times. 25 patients were clinically healthy adults, whereas 50 patients had signs of somatic dysfunctions.Results. Computer encephalography permits to perceive the difference between the neutral touch and the therapeutic action. An identifi cation reaction is a response to the neutral touch (changes in brain bioelectrical activity with an increase in statistically signifi cant connections in the temporal lobes), whereas the therapeutic action provokes the state of purposeful brain activity during still point (intensifi cation of frontooccipital interactions).Conclusions. Osteopathic action causes additional tension in the processing of incoming information, which requires participation of different brain regions, including interhemispheric mechanisms associated with analysis, maintenance of attention and regulation of targeted activities.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 10
Author(s):  
Narendra Kumar Singh ◽  
Nishant Goyal

Background: Schizophrenia is associated with a high familial, social and economic burden. Schizophrenia is also associated with a high level of disability which may create impediments on the social and economic areas of the patients as well as on their respective family networks. Families with schizophrenia may encounter problems such as impairment of health and well being of other family members, restriction of social activities of the family members and shrinking of support from the social network. Aims: The present study examined the difference in perceived social support and burden of care between the male and female caregivers of patients with schizophrenia. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study examining the difference in perceived social support and burden of care between the male and female caregivers of patients with schizophrenia. The sample consisted of 60 (30 male and 30 female) caregivers of the patients with the diagnosis of schizophrenia as per ICD-10-DCR. Results and Conclusion: This study revealed that male caregivers perceived more social support and less burden of care as compared to female caregivers. Key words: Gender, social support, burden


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