Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2014 Apr;9(4):464-9. doi: 10.1093/scan/nst005. Epub 2013 Jan 12.
Although altruistic and selfish behaviors seem fundamentally incommensurable humans regularly choose between them. One model of such choices suggests that individuals ascribe a common form of subjective value to their own outcomes and those of others. To test this 'person invariance' hypothesis, we asked individuals to choose between allocating varying amounts of money to themselves or to a partner. Participants' choice patterns provided an estimate of the relative value they placed on their own and others' gains. These estimates were used to isolate neural activity correlating with the subjective value of gains irrespective of the recipient (self or other) during a separate set of trials in which rewards were offered only to the self or partner. Activity in ventromedial prefrontal cortex scaled with this person-invariant value parameter, consistent with earlier demonstrations that this region supports common value computation. These data suggest that individuals reduce the value associated with their own and others' experiences to a common subjective scale, which is used to guide social decision-making.
尽管利他主义和自私行为似乎在根本上不可通约，但人类经常在两者之间做出选择。这样的选择的一种模式表明，个体将一种共同的主观价值归因于自己的结果和他人的结果。为了检验这种“人不变性”假设，我们要求个体在将不同数量的钱分配给自己或伴侣之间做出选择。参与者的选择模式提供了他们对自己和他人收益的相对价值的估计。这些估计值用于在单独的一组试验中隔离与收益的主观价值相关的神经活动，而不论接受者（自己或他人）如何，在这些试验中，奖励仅提供给自己或伴侣。腹内侧前额叶皮层的活动与这个人不变的价值参数成正比，这与早期的研究结果一致，即该区域支持共同价值计算。这些数据表明，个体将自己和他人的经验所带来的价值降低到一个共同的主观尺度，用于指导社会决策。
