title: Fairness influences early signatures of reward-related neural processing.
abstract: Many humans exhibit a strong preference for fairness during decision-making. Although there is evidence that social factors influence reward-related and affective neural processing, it is unclear if this effect is mediated by compulsory outcome evaluation processes or results from slower deliberate cognition. Here we show that the feedback-related negativity (FRN) and late positive potential (LPP), two signatures of early hedonic processing, are modulated by the fairness of rewards during a passive rating task. We find that unfair payouts elicit larger FRNs than fair payouts, whereas fair payouts elicit larger LPPs than unfair payouts. This is true both in the time-domain, where the FRN and LPP are related, and in the time-frequency domain, where the two signals are largely independent. Ultimately, this work demonstrates that fairness affects the early stages of reward and affective processing, suggesting a common biological mechanism for social and personal reward evaluation.
authors.affiliation: Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06520-8074, USA. bart.massi@yale.edu.
authors.forename: Bart
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Massi
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Christian C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Luhmann
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D025461:Feedback, Physiological / Q000502:physiology; D030141:Feedback, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009014:Morals; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012201:Reward; D012938:Social Perception; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Feedback-related-negativity; Inequality-aversion; Late-positive-potential