Neural Economics of Biological Substrates of Valuation

描述（由申请人提供）：所有社会交换的基本认知组成部分之一是互惠性-一个代理的社交手势应该由另一个代理的大致等效手势回答的概念。尽管互惠作为一种基本的认知机制很重要，但我们对人类互惠本能的神经和行为理解仍然是初步的。这个提议的总体目标是在各种双代理设置中探测互惠性，在这种阶段性社会交换期间暴露其对行为反应的影响，并生成其计算组件的数学数据驱动描述。在所有情况下，我们试图将两个代理之间的相互作用所涉及的行为变量与功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）测量的潜在神经相关性联系起来。我们自由地使用行为经济学中常用的经济交换游戏。 公共卫生相关性：人类社会互动的基本大脑和认知机制几乎完全未知。许多形式的精神疾病和脑损伤严重损害了我们与其他人保持正常合作互动的能力，这使得我们知识上的巨大差距变得更加严重。这项提案将使用功能性磁共振成像，分阶段的社会互动和计算理论来探索人类进行互惠社会交换的方式。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): One of the fundamental cognitive components of all social exchange is reciprocity - the concept that a social gesture by one agent should be answered by a roughly equivalent gesture from the other agent. Despite the importance of reciprocity as a fundamental cognitive mechanism, our neural and behavioral understanding of reciprocity instincts in humans remains rudimentary. The overall goal of this proposal is to probe reciprocity across a variety of two- agent settings, expose its influence on behavioral responses during such staged social exchange, and generate mathematical data-driven descriptions of its computational components. In all cases, we seek to relate behavioral variables involved in reciprocal interaction between two agents to underlying neural correlates as measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We make liberal use of economic exchange games commonly employed in behavioral economics. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The fundamental brain and cognitive mechanisms underlying social interactions among humans are almost completely unknown. This tremendous gap in our knowledge is made worse by the fact that many forms of mental illness and brain injury severely impair our capacity to sustain normal cooperative interactions with other humans. This proposal will use functional magnetic resonance imaging, staged social interactions, and computational theory to probe the way that humans carry out reciprocal social exchange.