Haas Brian W, Ishak Alexandra, Anderson Ian W, Filkowski Megan M
Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens GA, 30602, USA; Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Georgia, Athens GA, 30602, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens GA, 30602, USA.
Neuroimage. 2015 Feb 15;107:175-181. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2014.11.060. Epub 2014 Dec 5.
Trust is an important component of human social life. Within the brain, the function within a neural network implicated in interpersonal and social-cognitive processing is associated with the way trust-based decisions are made. However, it is currently unknown how localized structure within the healthy human brain is associated with the tendency to trust other people. This study was designed to test the prediction that individual differences in the tendency to trust are associated with regional gray matter volume within the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), amygdala and anterior insula. Behavioral and neuroimaging data were collected from a sample of 82 healthy participants. Individual differences in the tendency to trust were measured in two ways (self-report and behaviorally: trustworthiness evaluation of faces task). Voxel based morphometry analyses of high-resolution structural images (VBM8-DARTEL) were conducted to test for the association between the tendency to trust and regional gray matter volume. The results provide converging evidence that individuals characterized as trusting others more exhibit increased gray matter volume within the bilateral vmPFC and bilateral anterior insula. Greater right amygdala volume is associated with the tendency to rate faces as more trustworthy and distrustworthy (U-shaped function). A whole brain analysis also shows that the tendency to trust is reflected in the structure of dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. These findings advance neural models that associate the structure and function of the human brain with social decision-making and the tendency trust other people.
信任是人类社会生活的重要组成部分。在大脑中,参与人际和社会认知加工的神经网络内的功能与基于信任的决策方式相关。然而,目前尚不清楚健康人类大脑中的局部结构如何与信任他人的倾向相关联。本研究旨在检验以下预测:信任倾向的个体差异与腹内侧前额叶皮层(vmPFC)、杏仁核和前岛叶的区域灰质体积有关。从82名健康参与者的样本中收集了行为和神经影像数据。通过两种方式测量信任倾向的个体差异(自我报告和行为方式:面部可信度评估任务)。对高分辨率结构图像进行基于体素的形态学分析(VBM8-DARTEL),以测试信任倾向与区域灰质体积之间的关联。结果提供了一致的证据,表明更信任他人的个体在双侧vmPFC和双侧前岛叶内的灰质体积增加。右侧杏仁核体积越大,与将面部评为更值得信任和不值得信任的倾向相关(U形函数)。全脑分析还表明,信任倾向反映在背内侧前额叶皮层的结构中。这些发现推进了将人类大脑的结构和功能与社会决策及信任他人倾向相关联的神经模型。