经济行为科学重点实验室

      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、赵俊（通讯）等完成的论文Modulating the activity of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex alters altruism in situations of advantageous inequity被Neuroscience杂志接受发表。

      利他受到人类社会的高度评价和重视。然而，人类的偏好和行为对不公平非常敏感。但是目前，人们对不公平情境下利他行为的神经生物学机制知之甚少。为阐明右侧背外侧前额叶皮层(rDLPFC)在优势和劣势不公平情境中对利他行为的因果作用，我们采用经颅直流电刺激(tDCS)技术。研究共招募71名参与者接受1.5 mA的tDCS阳极刺激，参与者被随机刺激右侧背外侧前额叶皮层 (n = 38)或初级视觉皮层(n = 33)，随后完成独裁者游戏来衡量利他。研究发现阳极tDCS刺激rDLPFC降低了参与者在优势不公平情况中对利他效率和利他成本的敏感性。我们的研究结果表明，在优势的不公平情况下，右侧背外侧前额叶皮层在超越自利以执行利他行为方面发挥了重要作用。

Hanqi Zhang, Zhiqiang Dong, Shenggang Cai, Shijing Wu, Jun Zhao*. Modulating the activity of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex alters altruism in situations of advantageous inequity. Neuroscience. 25 November 2022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2022.11.023

Abstract

Altruism is highly valued and cherished by human society. However, human preferences and behavior are sensitive to inequality considerations. Currently, remarkably little is known about the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the process of altruistic acts in inequity situations. Therefore, to clarify the causal role of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC) in altruism during situations of advantageous and disadvantageous inequity, we applied transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to demonstrate the involvement of the rDLPFC in altruism in situations of inequity. A total of 71 participants (38 female and 33 male) received anodal tDCS at 1.5 mA over the rDLPFC (n = 38) or the primary visual cortex (n = 33) and subsequently participated in a modified dictator game that measures altruism. We found that anodal tDCS over the rDLPFC decreased subjects’ sensitivity to altruistic efficiency and cost in situations of advantageous inequity. Our results suggested that the rDLPFC plays an important role in overriding self-interest to enforce altruism in situations of advantageous inequity.