title: Perceived moral traits of others differentiate the neural activation that underlies inequity-aversion.
abstract: We have a social preference to reduce inequity in the outcomes between oneself and others. Such a preference varies according to others. We performed functional magnetic resonance imaging during an economic game to investigate how the perceived moral traits of others modulate the neural activities that underlie inequity-aversion. The participants unilaterally allocated money to three partners (good, neutral, and bad). During presentation of the good and neutral partners, the anterior region of the rostral medial frontal cortex (arMFC) showed increased functional connectivity with the caudate head and the anterior insula, respectively. Following this, participants allocated more money to the good partner, and less to the bad partner, compared with the neutral partner. The caudate head and anterior insula showed greater activation during fair allocation to the good and unfair allocation to the neutral partners, respectively. However, these regions were silent during allocations to the bad partner. Therefore, the arMFC-caudate/insula circuit encompasses distinct neural processes that underlie inequity-aversion in monetary allocations that the different moral traits of others can modulate.
authors.affiliation: Okanoya Emotional Information Project, Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology (ERATO), Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), Kawaguchi, Saitama, 332-0012, Japan.|Cognition and Behavior Joint Research Laboratory, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako, Saitama, 351-0198, Japan.|Center for Evolutionary Cognitive Science, Graduate School of Arts and Science, The University of Tokyo, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 153-8902, Japan.
authors.forename: Hironori
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nakatani
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Psychology, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-0033, Japan.|Department of Neurophysiology, Juntendo University, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8421, Japan.|Brain Science Institute, Tamagawa University, Machida, Tokyo, 194-8610, Japan.
authors.forename: Akitoshi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ogawa
authors.affiliation: Support Unit for Functional MRI, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako, Saitama, 351-0198, Japan.
authors.forename: Chisato
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.affiliation: Support Unit for Functional MRI, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako, Saitama, 351-0198, Japan.
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Asamizuya
authors.affiliation: Support Unit for Functional MRI, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako, Saitama, 351-0198, Japan.
authors.forename: Kenichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ueno
authors.affiliation: Support Unit for Functional MRI, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako, Saitama, 351-0198, Japan.|Laboratory for Cognitive Brain Mapping, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako, Saitama, 351-0198, Japan.
authors.forename: Kang
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Okanoya Emotional Information Project, Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology (ERATO), Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), Kawaguchi, Saitama, 332-0012, Japan.|Cognition and Behavior Joint Research Laboratory, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako, Saitama, 351-0198, Japan.|Center for Evolutionary Cognitive Science, Graduate School of Arts and Science, The University of Tokyo, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 153-8902, Japan.|Department of Life Science, Graduate School of Arts and Science, The University of Tokyo, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 153-0198, Japan.
authors.forename: Kazuo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Okanoya
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002421:Caudate Nucleus / Q000502:physiology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D002755:Choice Behavior; D005260:Female; D005717:Games, Experimental; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009014:Morals; D012919:Social Behavior; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D055815:Young Adult