经济行为科学重点实验室

近日，经济行为科学重点实验室团队张汉其、董志强、蔡圣刚、吴诗婧（通讯）等完成的论文Distinct roles of the medial prefrontal cortex in advantageous and disadvantageous inequity aversion被Brain and Cognition接受发表。

在优势和劣势不公平情况下，人类对资源的公平分配都有强烈的偏好。神经影像学研究表明，优势和劣势不公平厌恶的加工过程涉及不同脑区。然而，人们对背内侧前额叶皮层（dmPFC）在这两种类型的不公平厌恶中的因果作用知之甚少。为了厘清dmPFC在这两种不公平厌恶中的作用，研究招募了70名受试者，并将受试者随机分配到两个正极经颅直接电流刺激（tDCS）组：tDCS刺激dmPFC（实验组）和tDCS刺激初级视觉皮层（控制组）。受试者随后完成独裁者游戏，该游戏用来测量受试者的不公平厌恶。研究发现：（1）背内侧前额叶皮层（dmPFC）在不公平厌恶中的因果作用。（2）tDCS采用1.5-mA电流刺激dmPFC降低了受试者的劣势不公平厌恶，但没有改变优势不平等厌恶。（3）dmPFC对优势和劣势不公平具厌恶有不同的作用（4）并且获取平等结果的成本调节了tDCS效应。 

Hanqi Zhang , Zhiqiang Dong, Shenggang Cai, Shijing Wu^*. Distinct roles of the medial prefrontal cortex in advantageous and disadvantageous inequity aversion.Brain and Cognition.Volume 164, December 2022, 105927

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2022.105927

Abstract

Human beings have a strong preference for the fair distribution of resources in situations of both advantageous and disadvantageous inequity. Neuroimaging studies have shown that the process of advantageous and disadvantageous inequity aversion involves distinct brain regions. However, little is known about the causal roles of the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) in these two types of inequity aversion. To clarify the roles of the dmPFC in both types of inequity aversion, 70 subjects were recruited and randomly assigned to two anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) groups: tDCS over the dmPFC and tDCS over the primary visual cortex. Participants then completed a dictator game, which was used to measure the aversion to inequity. This study found that tDCS over the dmPFC decreased the aversion to disadvantageous inequity, but not that to advantageous inequity, and the treatment effect was modulated by equity cost. These results show that the dmPFC plays different roles in these two types of inequity aversion.