Activation in bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) corresponds to everyday helping.

ABSTRACT: Everyday prosociality includes helping behaviors such as holding doors or giving directions that are spontaneous and low-cost and are performed frequently by the average person. Such behaviors promote a wide array of positive outcomes that include increased well-being, trust, and social capital, but the cognitive and neural mechanisms that support these behaviors are not yet well understood. Whereas costly altruistic responding to others' distress is associated with elevated reactivity in the amygdala, we hypothesized that everyday prosociality would be more closely associated with activation in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST), a region of the extended amygdala known for its roles in maintaining vigilance for relevant socio-affective environmental cues and in supporting pare

SUBMITTER: Vekaria KM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7239753 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature