Neural sensitivity to personal and vicarious reward differentially relates to prosociality and well-being.

ABSTRACT: Individuals stably vary in their responses to rewards, but researchers have not yet determined whether sensitivity to rewarding outcomes translates across social and non-social contexts or whether different forms of reward sensitivity relate to distinct behavioral tendencies. We tested for responsiveness to different types of rewards by assessing individuals' neural sensitivity to personal vs. vicarious monetary reward outcomes and explored how responses to each related to prosociality and well-being. Forty-six participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning while winning money for themselves and observing a friend and stranger win money. All types of reward outcomes engaged the ventral striatum, but neural sensitivity to rewards for the self and for others wer

SUBMITTER: Morelli SA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6123524 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature