Arbitration between insula and temporoparietal junction subserves framing-induced boosts in generosity during social discounting

• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118211
• Publication Date: 2021-06-09T01:12:13Z
• Authors: Manuela Sellitto; Susanne Neufang; Adam Schweda; Bernd Weber; Tobias Kalenscher
• Keywords: Adult; Male; 0301 basic medicine; TPJ; VMPFC; Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry; Neuroimaging; Young Adult; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Parietal Lobe; Social discounting; Neural Pathways; Humans; Social Behavior; Insular cortex; Cerebral Cortex; DCM; Middle Aged; Altruism; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Temporal Lobe; Female; Framing effect; RC321-571

AbstractGenerosity toward others declines across the perceived social distance to them. Here, participants chose between selfish and costly generous options in two conditions: in the gain frame, a generous choice yielded a gain to the other; in the loss frame, it entailed preventing the loss of a previous endowment to the other. Social discounting was reduced in the loss compared to the gain frame, implying increased generosity toward strangers. Using neuroimaging tools, we found that while the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) subserved generosity in the gain frame, the insular cortex was selectively recruited during generous choices in the loss frame. We provide support for a network-model according to which TPJ and insula differentially promote generosity by modulating value signals in the VMPFC in a frame-dependent fashion. These results extend our understanding of the insula role in nudging prosocial behavior in humans.