When ‘more for others, less for self’ leads to co-benefits: a triad fMRI
hyperscanning study
Abstract
Unselfishness is one of the admired facilitators for human group
endeavors, especially in times of urgent calls for global collaboration.
Despite its importance, the neural dynamics behind its formation is
scarcely understood. With 26 triads interacting as turn-taking pairs in
a coordination game, we investigated reciprocal interactions in this
tri-fMRI hyperscanning experiment. The critical role of the right
temporal-parietal junction (rTPJ) was examined by adopting both time-
and frequency-domain analyses. For the former, in the successful versus
failed “reciprocity” contrast, brain regions associated with the
mirror neuron system (MNS) and the mentalizing system (MS) were
identified. In addition, the differences of connectivity between the
rTPJ (seed region) and the abovementioned network areas (e.g., the right
Inferior Parietal Lobule, rIPL) were negatively correlated with the
individual reward. These results both verified the experimental design,
which favored ‘reciprocal’ participants/triads with larger gains, and
supported the opposition of rTPJ (other-) vs. rIPL (self-concerned)
areas during successful social exchanges. Furthermore, the cerebral
synchronization of the rTPJs emerged between the interacting pairs, and
the coupling between the rTPJ and the right Superior Temporal Gyrus
(rSTG) was found between those interacting simultaneously with others of
the same group. These coherence findings not only echoed our previous
findings, but also reinforced the hypotheses of the rTPJ-rTPJ coupling
underpinning simultaneous collaboration and the rTPJ-rSTG coupling for
decontextualized shared meaning emergence. Taken together, these results
support two of the multi-functions (other-concerning and
decontextualizing) subserved by the rTPJ, and highlight its interaction
with other self-concerning brain areas in reaching co-benefits.