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成分之一是互惠--即一个代理人的社交手势应该得到另一个代理人大致相同的手势的回应。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处于初级阶段。这项建议的总体目标是探索各种双主体设置的互惠，揭示其在这种阶段性社会交换过程中对行为反应的影响，并生成其计算组成部分的数学数据驱动描述。在所有情况下，我们都试图将两个代理人之间相互作用中涉及的行为变量与功能磁共振成像(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见的经济交换博弈。 与公共卫生的相关性：人类之间社会互动背后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削弱了我们维持与他人正常合作互动的能力，这让我们知识上的巨大差距变得更加严重。这项提议将使用功能磁共振成像、阶段性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.