title: Default distrust? An fMRI investigation of the neural development of trust and cooperation.
abstract: The tendency to trust and to cooperate increases from adolescence to adulthood. This social development has been associated with improved mentalizing and age-related changes in brain function. Thus far, there is limited imaging data investigating these associations. We used two trust games with a trustworthy and an unfair partner to explore the brain mechanisms underlying trust and cooperation in subjects ranging from adolescence to mid-adulthood. Increasing age was associated with higher trust at the onset of social interactions, increased levels of trust during interactions with a trustworthy partner and a stronger decline in trust during interactions with an unfair partner. Our findings demonstrate a behavioural shift towards higher trust and an age-related increase in the sensitivity to others' negative social signals. Increased brain activation in mentalizing regions, i.e. temporo-parietal junction, posterior cingulate and precuneus, supported the behavioural change. Additionally, age was associated with reduced activation in the reward-related orbitofrontal cortex and caudate nucleus during interactions with a trustworthy partner, possibly reflecting stronger expectations of trustworthiness. During unfair interactions, age-related increases in anterior cingulate activation, an area implicated in conflict monitoring, may mirror the necessity to inhibit pro-social tendencies in the face of the partner's actual levels of cooperation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Educational Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Education, VU University Amsterdam; Prof. E.M. Meijerslaan 2, 1183 BT Amstelveen, The Netherlands. Tel.: +31 20 598 3462; Fax: +31 20 598 8745. A.J.Fett@vu.nl.
authors.forename: Anne-Kathrin J
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Fett
authors.forename: Paula M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Gromann
authors.forename: Vincent
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Giampietro
authors.forename: Sukhi S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Shergill
authors.forename: Lydia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Krabbendam
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000254:growth & development*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D005260:Female; D005717:Games, Experimental; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010100:Oxygen; D035502:Trust; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen