PROFUSE: Fusing brain and computational mechanisms of prosocial behaviour across health, development and disorder

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Prosocial behaviours - decisions that help others - are fundamental for societal and individual well-being. From climate change to ageing populations, current and future generations face great challenges that require individuals to make significant personal sacrifices to help others and maintain social cohesion. It is therefore crucial to understand the mechanisms that underlie prosocial behaviour, their (a)typical development - from childhood to adolescence - and how they are implemented in the brain. Yet, current knowledge is fractured. Separate lines of work have examined where in the brain prosocial behaviour is processed (fMRI), when in time such processing occurs (MEG or EEG), how prosocial behaviours develop, or the computations. Now is the time to leverage innovative computational tools, end the fissures between approaches, fuse methods together, and unify their benefits. ProFuse will combine big-data samples, machine learning, beyond-state-of-the-art brain imaging, repetitive brain stimulation and computational methods with innovative experiments that tap fundamental features of prosocial behaviours. Using the latest representational similarity multivariate techniques, this work will mathematically 'fuse' data from a pioneering wearable form of brain imaging - optically pumped magnetometer (OPM)-magnetoencephalography (MEG) - with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data, to test where, when and how prosocial computations are processed neurally. Using repetitive brain stimulation (TMS) these computations will be disrupted at the exact place they occur in prefrontal cortex. Finally, ProFuse will use OPM-MEG fMRI fusion - precisely suited for developmental neuroimaging - to uncover computational mechanisms of prosocial behaviour during the sensitive period from childhood to adolescence, and compared to adulthood.Ultimately, ProFuse will provide a revolutionary integrated account of prosocial behaviour spanning childhood to adulthood and enlighten strategies to increase prosocial behaviours.