Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
J Neurosci. 2012 May 30;32(22):7646-50. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.6193-11.2012.
Human beings have an unusual proclivity for altruistic behavior, and recent commentators have suggested that these prosocial tendencies arise from our unique capacity to understand the minds of others (i.e., to mentalize). The current studies test this hypothesis by examining the relation between altruistic behavior and the reflexive engagement of a neural system reliably associated with mentalizing. Results indicated that activity in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex--a region consistently involved in understanding others' mental states--predicts both monetary donations to others and time spent helping others. These findings address long-standing questions about the proximate source of human altruism by suggesting that prosocial behavior results, in part, from our broader tendency for social-cognitive thought.
人类有一种不寻常的利他行为倾向，最近的评论员认为，这些亲社会倾向源于我们独特的理解他人心理的能力（即心理化）。当前的研究通过检验利他行为与可靠地与心理化相关的神经系统的反射性参与之间的关系来检验这一假设。结果表明，背内侧前额叶皮层的活动——一个一致地参与理解他人心理状态的区域——既可以预测向他人捐款的金额，也可以预测帮助他人的时间。这些发现通过表明亲社会行为部分是由于我们更广泛的社会认知思维倾向，解决了关于人类利他主义的近似来源的长期问题。
