Cooperation is necessary for solving numerous social issues, including climate change, effective governance and economic stability. Value-based decision models contend that prosocial tendencies and social context shape people’s preferences for cooperative or selfish behavior. Using functional neuroimaging and computational modeling, we tested these predictions by comparing activity in brain regions previously linked to valuation and executive function during decision-making—the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), respectively. Participants played Public Goods Games with students from fictitious universities, where social norms were selfish or cooperative. Prosocial participants showed greater vmPFC activity when cooperating and dlPFC-vmPFC connectivity when acting selfishly, whereas selfish participants displayed the opposite pattern. Norm-sensitive participants showed greater dlPFC-vmPFC connectivity when defying group norms. Modeling expectations of cooperation was associated with activity near the right temporoparietal junction. Consistent with value-based models, this suggests that prosocial tendencies and contextual norms flexibly determine whether people prefer cooperation or defection.

中文翻译：

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亲社会观念的转变：基于价值的基于群体的合作的神经认知证据。

为了解决众多社会问题，包括气候变化，有效治理和经济稳定，合作是必要的。基于价值的决策模型认为亲社会的倾向和社会环境影响着人们对合作或自私行为的偏好。使用功能性神经成像和计算模型，我们通过比较先前在决策过程中与估值和执行功能相关的大脑区域的活动（分别为腹侧前额叶皮层（vmPFC）和背外侧前额叶皮层（dlPFC））来测试这些预测。参与者与社会规范自私或合作的虚拟大学的学生一起玩公共物品游戏。亲社会的参与者在合作时表现出更多的vmPFC活动，在自私的行为下表现出dlPFC-vmPFC的连接性，自私的参与者表现出相反的模式。对规范敏感的参与者在违反组规范时表现出更高的dlPFC-vmPFC连接性。对合作期望的建模与右侧颞顶交界处的活动有关。与基于价值的模型一致，这表明亲社会的倾向和上下文规范可以灵活地确定人们是喜欢合作还是叛逃。