Open AccessOverlapping and distinct representations of advantageous and disadvantageous inequality
Author(s) -
Yu Rongjun,
Calder Andrew J.,
Mobbs Dean
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
human brain mapping
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.005
H-Index - 191
eISSN - 1097-0193
pISSN - 1065-9471
DOI - 10.1002/hbm.22402
Subject(s) - putamen , insula , orbitofrontal cortex , psychology , anterior cingulate cortex , posterior cingulate , stochastic game , amygdala , functional magnetic resonance imaging , cingulate cortex , neuroscience , cognitive psychology , prefrontal cortex , economics , cognition , microeconomics , central nervous system
Advantageous inequality (AI) aversion, or paying at a personal cost to achieve equal reward distribution, represents a unique feature of human behavior. Here, we show that individuals have strong preferences for fairness in both disadvantageous (DI) and advantageous inequality (AI) situations, such that they alter others' payoff at a personal financial cost. At the neural level, we found that both types of inequality activated the putamen, orbitofrontal cortex, and insula, regions implicated in motivation. Individual difference analyses found that those who spent more money to increase others' payoff had stronger activity in putamen when they encountered AI and less functional connectivity between putamen and both orbitofrontal cortex and anterior insula. Conversely, those who spent more money to reduce others' payoff had stronger activity in amygdala in response to DI and less functional connectivity between amygdala and ventral anterior cingulate cortex. These dissociations suggest that both types of inequality are processed by similar brain areas, yet modulated by different neural pathways. Hum Brain Mapp 35:3290–3301, 2014 . © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc .