1. RESULTS
1. Dept. of Anthrop., 2. Dept. of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sci., 3. Ctr. for Translational Social Neurosci., 4. Ctr for Behavioral Neuroscience, 5. Yerkes National Primate Research Ctr Emory Univ.,
Atlanta, GA, USA
METHODS
BACKGRUOND
• Reciprocal altruism is a core behavioral principal
of human social life, but little is known about the
neural bases of individual variation in cooperative
behavior in this context. The iterated Prisoner’s
Dilemma Game has been used to model this type
of cooperation.
CONCLUSION
Neural Correlates of Individual Variation in Cooperative Behavior
Joshua Davila, Xu Chen1,2, James Rilling1,2,3,4,5
Laboratory for Darwinian Neuroscience, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research was supported by the National Institute for Mental Health (MH086947) and the National Center for Research Resources
(P51RR165) currently supported by the Office of Research Infrastructure Programs OD P51OD11132. This study was supported by National
Institute of Mental Health grant number R01 MH084068-01A1) and the National Center or Advancing Translational Sciences of the National
Institutes of Health under Award Number UL1TR000454
Research reported in this poster was supported by Emory Initiative for Maximizing Student Development of the National Institutes of Health
under award R25GM099644. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the
National Institutes of Health.
• In this fMRI study, we imaged 153 healthy normal
men and 151 healthy normal women as they
played an iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma game with
both same-sex human and computer partners.
• Subjects were randomized to treatment with either
intranasal OT, intranasal AVP, or placebo.
• Subjects played 30 rounds with human and
computer partners as both Player 1 (first mover)
and Player 2 (second mover). Here we focus on
Player 1 data.
• Behaviors were correlated with BOLD activation to
CC and CD outcomes.
• In men, cooperation after CD outcomes was positively correlated with activation in regions involved with emotion
regulation such as DLPFC and DMPFC. CD outcomes elicit negative emotions and PFC engagement may be
needed to reappraise those emotions in the service of continued cooperation(Goldin et. al, 2008).
• In women, cooperation after CD outcomes is negatively correlated with activation in areas involved in stress and
anxiety such as the amygdala and anterior insula. Thus, stress and anxiety may interfere with continued
cooperation after a CD outcome.
• Activation in the Caudate in response to a CC outcome was positively correlated with the number of C choices in
men, but was negatively correlated with the number of C choices in women. This suggests that there is a sex
difference in how men and women’s behavior are affected by Caudate activation in response to a CC outcome.
Men
Women
p=0.001
r=0.33**
p=0.001
r=0.34**
p=0.002
r=0.27**
p=0.001
r=-0.28**
p=0.008
r=-0.22**
OT
AVP
Placebo
p=0.003
r=-0.25**