Medial prefrontal cortical thinning mediates shifts in other-regarding preferences during adolescence.

ABSTRACT: Adolescence is a time of significant cortical changes in the 'social brain', a set of brain regions involved in sophisticated social inference. However, there is limited evidence linking the structural changes in social brain to development of social behavior. The present study investigated how cortical development of the social brain relates to other-regarding behavior, in the context of fairness concerns. Participants aged between 9 to 23 years old responded to multiple rounds of ultimatum game proposals. The degree to which each participant considers fairness of intention (i.e., intention-based reciprocity) vs. outcome (i.e., egalitarianism) was quantified using economic utility models. We observed a gradual shift in other-regarding preferences from simple rule-based egalitarianism to c

SUBMITTER: Sul S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5561198 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature