NCCR Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, 7 rue des Battoirs, CH-1205 Geneva, Switzerland.
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2014 May;9(5):561-9. doi: 10.1093/scan/nst020. Epub 2013 Mar 4.
Little is known about brain mechanisms recruited during the monitoring and appraisal of social conflicts--for instance, when individuals compete with each other for the same resources. We designed a novel experimental task inducing resource conflicts between two individuals. In an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) design, participants played with another human participant or against a computer, who across trials chose either different (no-conflict) or the same tokens (conflict trials) in order to obtain monetary gains. In conflict trials, the participants could decide whether they would share the token, and the resulting gain, with the other person or instead keep all points for themselves. Behaviorally, participants shared much more often when playing with a human partner than with a computer. fMRI results demonstrated that the dorsal mediofrontal cortex was selectively activated during human conflicts. This region might play a key role in detecting situations in which self- and social interest are incompatible and require behavioral adjustment. In addition, we found a conflict-related response in the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex that correlated with measures of social relationship and individual sharing behavior. Taken together, these findings reveal a key role of these prefrontal areas for the appraisal and resolution of interpersonal resource conflicts.
人们对社会冲突监测和评估过程中所涉及的大脑机制知之甚少，例如，当个体为争夺相同资源而相互竞争时。我们设计了一种新颖的实验任务，在两个个体之间诱发资源冲突。在一个事件相关的功能磁共振成像（fMRI）设计中，参与者与另一名人类参与者或计算机进行游戏，在整个试验中，计算机选择不同的（无冲突）或相同的代币（冲突试验），以获得金钱收益。在冲突试验中，参与者可以决定是否与另一个人分享代币和由此产生的收益，或者自己保留所有点数。行为上，参与者与人类伙伴玩游戏时比与计算机玩游戏时更愿意分享。fMRI 结果表明，背侧中前额皮质在人类冲突期间被选择性激活。该区域可能在检测自我和社会利益不一致并需要行为调整的情况方面发挥关键作用。此外，我们在右侧腹外侧前额叶皮层中发现了与社会关系和个体分享行为相关的冲突反应。总的来说，这些发现揭示了这些前额叶区域在人际资源冲突的评估和解决中的关键作用。
