Abstract
Every day we constantly observe other people receiving rewards. Theoretical accounts posit that vicarious reward processing might be linked to people's sensitivity to internal body states (interoception) and facilitates a tendency to act prosocially. However, the neural processes underlying the links between vicarious reward processing, interoception, and prosocial behaviour are poorly understood. Previous research has linked vicarious reward processing to the anterior cingulate gyrus (ACCg) and the anterior insula (AI). Can we predict someone's propensity to be prosocial or to be aware of interoceptive signals from variability in how the ACCg and AI process rewards? Here, participants monitored rewards being delivered to themselves or a stranger during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Later, they performed a task measuring their willingness to exert effort to obtain rewards for others, and a task measuring their propensity to be aware and use interoceptive respiratory signals. Using multivariate similarity analysis, we show that people's willingness to be prosocial is predicted by greater similarity between self and other representations in the ACCg. Moreover, greater dissimilarity in self-other representations in the AI is linked to interoceptive propensity. These findings highlight that vicarious reward is linked to bodily signals in AI, and foster prosocial tendencies through the ACCg.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 119881 |
Number of pages | 13 |
Journal | NeuroImage |
Volume | 269 |
Early online date | 23 Jan 2023 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Apr 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by grants from the John Templeton Foundation (Beacons Project and No. 61495), the Academy of Medical Sciences (SBF001\1008), the Oxford University Press John Fell Fund, and the Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund (204826/Z/16/Z) awarded to MJC; a National Agency for Research and Development (ANID) DOCTORADO BECAS CHILE (BECAS CHILE/2016 – 72170287) to LSCH; a Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council David Phillips Fellowship (BB/R010668/1; BB/R010668/2) and a Jacobs Foundation Research Fellowship to MAJA; and a Medical Research Council Fellowship (MR/P014097/1 and MR/P014097/2), a Jacobs Foundation Research Fellowship, and a Sir Henry Dale Fellowship funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Royal Society (223264/Z/21/Z) to PLL.
Data availability
All data and scripts used for main analysis and figures can be found here https://osf.io/bkmea/?view_only=b68a7511d330486885a99252729a8919
Keywords
- Anterior cingulate cortex
- Anterior insula
- Vicarious reward
- interoception, moral judgment, Hunger, Decision Making, moral dilemmas
- Prosocial behaviour