Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics, University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland.
Neuron. 2010 Oct 6;68(1):149-60. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2010.09.003.
Little is known about the neurobiological mechanisms underlying prosocial decisions and how they are modulated by social factors such as perceived group membership. The present study investigates the neural processes preceding the willingness to engage in costly helping toward ingroup and outgroup members. Soccer fans witnessed a fan of their favorite team (ingroup member) or of a rival team (outgroup member) experience pain. They were subsequently able to choose to help the other by enduring physical pain themselves to reduce the other's pain. Helping the ingroup member was best predicted by anterior insula activation when seeing him suffer and by associated self-reports of empathic concern. In contrast, not helping the outgroup member was best predicted by nucleus accumbens activation and the degree of negative evaluation of the other. We conclude that empathy-related insula activation can motivate costly helping, whereas an antagonistic signal in nucleus accumbens reduces the propensity to help.
关于促进亲社会决策的神经生物学机制，以及这些机制如何被感知到的群体成员等社会因素所调节，人们知之甚少。本研究调查了在愿意对群体内成员和群体外成员进行代价高昂的帮助之前的神经过程。足球迷们看到了他们最喜欢的球队（群体内成员）或敌对球队（群体外成员）的一名球迷正在经历痛苦。随后，他们可以选择通过自己承受身体上的痛苦来帮助对方，以减轻对方的痛苦。当看到自己喜欢的球队的球迷受苦时，前脑岛的激活最能预测帮助该球迷，而与同理心相关的自我报告也最能预测帮助。相比之下，不帮助群体外成员的行为则最能通过伏隔核的激活和对他人的负面评价程度来预测。我们的结论是，与同理心相关的脑岛激活可以激发代价高昂的帮助行为，而伏隔核中的拮抗信号则会降低帮助的倾向。
