Neural basis of extraordinary empathy and altruistic motivation
Neural basis of extraordinary empathy and altruistic motivation
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DOI：
10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.03.025
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发表时间：
2010-07-15
期刊：
影响因子：
5.7
通讯作者：
Chiao, Joan Y.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Mathur, Vani A.;Harada, Tokiko;Chiao, Joan Y.
社会群体的一个核心进化挑战是将一组异质的个体团结起来，实现共同的目标。社会群体得以形成和延续的一种方式是赋予群体成员以特殊的亲社会倾向，比如对其他群体成员的内群体之爱。在这里，我们研究了非裔美国人和白人美国人使用功能磁共振成像的非凡的同理心和利他动机的神经基础。我们的研究结果表明，对内群体成员的同理心与对人类的同理心在神经上是不同的。人们在观察他人的痛苦时，前扣带皮层和双侧额叶皮层表现出更大的反应，但非裔美国人在观察自己社会群体成员的痛苦时，还会招募内侧前额叶皮层。此外，内侧前额叶皮层内的神经活动，以响应内组相对于外组成员所表达的疼痛预测更大的同情和利他主义的动机，一个人的内组，这表明与自我身份相关的神经认知过程的基础非凡的同情和利他主义的动机为自己的社会群体的成员。总之，我们的研究结果揭示了不同的神经机制的共情和利他动机在组间的背景下，并可能作为未来的研究调查的神经基础的组间亲社会性，更广泛地解释。(C)2010年爱思唯尔公司All rights reserved.
A central evolutionary challenge for social groups is uniting a heterogeneous set of individuals towards common goals. One means by which social groups form and endure is by endowing group members with extraordinary prosocial proclivities, such as ingroup love, towards other group members. Here we examined the neural basis of extraordinary empathy and altruistic motivation in African-American and Caucasian-American individuals using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Our results indicate that empathy for ingroup members is neurally distinct from empathy for humankind, more generally. People showed greater response within anterior cingulate cortex and bilateral insula when observing the suffering of others, but African-American individuals additionally recruit medial prefrontal cortex when observing the suffering of members of their own social group. Moreover, neural activity within medial prefrontal cortex in response to pain expressed by ingroup relative to outgroup members predicted greater empathy and altruistic motivation for one's ingroup, suggesting that neurocognitive processes associated with self identity underlie extraordinary empathy and altruistic motivation for members of one's own social group. Taken together, our findings reveal distinct neural mechanisms of empathy and altruistic motivation in an intergroup context and may serve as a foundation for future research investigating the neural bases of intergroup prosociality, more broadly construed. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.