Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research, Department of Economics, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Neuron. 2012 Jul 12;75(1):73-9. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2012.05.021.
Human altruism shaped our evolutionary history and pervades social and political life. There are, however, enormous individual differences in altruism. Some people are almost completely selfish, while others display strong altruism, and the factors behind this heterogeneity are only poorly understood. We examine the neuroanatomical basis of these differences with voxel-based morphometry and show that gray matter (GM) volume in the right temporoparietal junction (TPJ) is strongly associated with both individuals' altruism and the individual-specific conditions under which this brain region is recruited during altruistic decision making. Thus, individual differences in GM volume in TPJ not only translate into individual differences in the general propensity to behave altruistically, but they also create a link between brain structure and brain function by indicating the conditions under which individuals are likely to recruit this region when they face a conflict between altruistic and selfish acts.
人类的利他主义塑造了我们的进化历史，并贯穿于社会和政治生活中。然而，利他主义在个体之间存在着巨大的差异。有些人几乎完全自私，而另一些人则表现出强烈的利他主义，而这种异质性背后的因素还知之甚少。我们利用基于体素的形态测量学来研究这些差异的神经解剖学基础，并表明右侧颞顶联合区（TPJ）的灰质（GM）体积与个体的利他主义以及在利他主义决策过程中该脑区被招募的个体特定条件强烈相关。因此，TPJ 中 GM 体积的个体差异不仅转化为个体在一般利他行为倾向方面的差异，而且通过指示个体在面对利他行为和自私行为之间的冲突时可能招募该区域的条件，将大脑结构和大脑功能联系起来。
