The anterior cingulate cortex is necessary for forming prosocial preferences from vicarious reinforcement in monkeys.

ABSTRACT: A key feature of most social relationships is that we like seeing good things happen to others. Research has implicated the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in attaching value to social outcomes. For example, single neurons in macaque ACC selectively code reward delivery to the self, a partner, both monkeys, or neither monkey. Here, we assessed whether the ACC's contribution to social cognition is causal by testing rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) on a vicarious reinforcement task before and after they sustained ACC lesions. Prior to surgery, actors learned that 3 different visual cues mapped onto 3 distinct reward outcomes: to self ("Self"), to the other monkey ("Other"), or to neither monkey ("Neither"). On each trial, actors saw a cue that predicted one of the 3 juice offers and could acc

SUBMITTER: Basile BM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7292358 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature