Altruistic behavior, i.e., promoting the welfare of others at a cost to oneself, is subserved by the integration of various social, affective, and economic factors represented in extensive brain regions. However, it is unclear how different regions interact to process/integrate information regarding the helper’s interest and recipient’s need when deciding whether to behave altruistically. Here we combined an interactive game with functional neuroimaging and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to characterize the neural network underlying the processing/integration of self-interest and other-need. At the behavioral level, high self-risk decreased helping behavior and high other-need increased helping behavior. At the neural level, activity in medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC) was positively associated with self-risk levels, and activity in right inferior parietal lobe (rIPL) and rDLPFC was negatively associated with other-need levels. Dynamic causal modeling further suggested that both MPFC and rIPL were extrinsically connected to rDLPFC; high self-risk enhanced the effective connectivity from MPFC to rDLPFC and the modulatory effect of other-need on the connectivity from rIPL to rDLPFC positively correlated with the modulatory effect of other-need on individuals’ helping rate. Two tDCS experiments provided causal evidence that rDLPFC affects both self-interest and other-need concerns, and rIPL selectively affects the other-need concerns. These findings suggest a crucial role of the MPFC-IPL-DLPFC network during altruistic decision-making, with rDLPFC as a central node for integrating and modulating motives regarding self-interest and other-need.
Biography
Dr. Xiaolin Zhou is a professor of psychology, a member of the University Council, and the Director of the Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences at Peking University, Beijing, China. After graduating from East China Normal University, he went to Cambridge University, United Kingdom in 1988 to study psychology of language. He was awarded Ph.D. by Cambridge University in 1992. Since then Dr. Zhou has worked in several institutes, including Birkbeck College, University of London, Beijing Normal University, and Cambridge University. From 1999, he works full time for Peking University. He is a corresponding fellow of the Rodin Remediation Academy, an Associate Editor of BMC Neuroscience, and an advisory board member of Scientific Report, and Language and Cognitive Processes. He received the “National Award for Yong Scientists in China” in 2001 and the “Natural Science Prize of Chinese Universities” from the Ministry of Education of China in 2004. He was honored as “Changjiang Scholar Professor” in 2013 by the Ministry of Education of China.
Dr. Zhou has been in charge of several research projects supported by the UK Economic and Social Research Council, National Science Foundation, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Ministry of Education of China. He has three main research interests. The first one is on language processing, including visual and spoken language comprehension and the development of reading abilities in normal and dyslexic children. Recent work focuses on neuropragmatics. The second one is on social neuroscience, particularly issues related to social cognition, social emotion, and neuroeconomics. The third one is on attentional selection and executive controls.