Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University; PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing, China; Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University.
Department of Psychology, Peking University, Beijing, China; PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing, China; Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University.
Neuroimage. 2015 Sep;118:376-85. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.06.023. Epub 2015 Jun 12.
Behavioral research suggests that mortality salience (MS) leads to increased in-group identification and in-group favoritism in prosocial behavior. What remains unknown is whether and how MS influences brain activity that mediates emotional resonance with in-group and out-group members and is associated with in-group favoritism in helping behavior. The current work investigated MS effects on empathic neural responses to racial in-group and out-group members' suffering. Experiments 1 and 2 respectively recorded event related potentials (ERPs) and blood oxygen level dependent signals to pain/neutral expressions of Asian and Caucasian faces from Chinese adults who had been primed with MS or negative affect (NA). Experiment 1 found that an early frontal/central activity (P2) was more strongly modulated by pain vs. neutral expressions of Asian than Caucasian faces, but this effect was not affected by MS vs. NA priming. However, MS relative to NA priming enhanced racial in-group bias in long-latency neural response to pain expressions over the central/parietal regions (P3). Experiment 2 found that MS vs. NA priming increased racial in-group bias in empathic neural responses to pain expression in the anterior and mid-cingulate cortex. Our findings indicate that reminding mortality enhances brain activity that differentiates between racial in-group and out-group members' emotional states and suggest a neural basis of in-group favoritism under mortality threat.
行为研究表明，死亡凸显（MS）会导致亲社会团体认同和亲社会团体偏好增加，从而促进亲社会行为。目前尚不清楚的是，MS 是否以及如何影响调节与内群体和外群体成员产生情感共鸣的大脑活动，以及与帮助行为中的内群体偏好有关的大脑活动。当前的工作调查了 MS 对种族内群体和外群体成员痛苦的共情神经反应的影响。实验 1 和实验 2 分别记录了中国成年人对亚洲和高加索面孔的疼痛/中性表情的事件相关电位（ERP）和血氧水平依赖信号，这些成年人被 MS 或消极情绪（NA）启动。实验 1 发现，与高加索面孔的中性表情相比，亚洲面孔的疼痛表情更强烈地调节了额/中央的早期活动（P2），但这种效应不受 MS 与 NA 启动的影响。然而，与 NA 启动相比，MS 增强了对中央/顶叶区域疼痛表情的长潜伏期神经反应的种族内群体偏差（P3）。实验 2 发现，与 NA 启动相比，MS 增强了对前扣带和中扣带皮层疼痛表情的共情神经反应的种族内群体偏差。我们的研究结果表明，提醒死亡会增强区分种族内群体和外群体成员情绪状态的大脑活动，并为死亡威胁下的内群体偏好提供了神经基础。
