The Effect of Oxytocin on Third-Party Altruistic Decisions in Unfair Situations: An fMRI Study.

ABSTRACT: Humans display an intriguing propensity to help the victim of social norm violations or punish the violators which require theory-of-mind (ToM)/mentalizing abilities. The hypothalamic peptide oxytocin (OXT) has been implicated in modulating various pro-social behaviors/perception including trust, cooperation, and empathy. However, it is still elusive whether OXT also influences neural responses during third-party altruistic decisions, especially in ToM-related brain regions such as the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ). To address this question, we conducted a pharmacological functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment with healthy male participants in a randomized, double-blind, cross-over design. After the intranasal administration synthetic OXT (OXT(IN)) or placebo (PLC), participant

SUBMITTER: Hu Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4735743 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature