ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2017
Amygdala-midbrain connectivity indicates a role for the mammalian parental care system in human altruism.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 26 citations in OpenAlex.
- Neural responses underlying extraordinary altruists' generosity for socially distant others.PNAS nexus · 2023Article
- Paraventricular thalamic nucleus plays a critical role in consolation and anxious behaviors of familiar observers exposed to surgery mice.Theranostics · 2021Article
- Help or flight? Increased threat imminence promotes defensive helping in humans.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2020Article
- Living donor liver transplant between physicians: two viewpoints.CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne · 2020Article
- Activation in bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) corresponds to everyday helping.Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior · 2020Article
- Ways of Knowing Compassion: How Do We Come to Know, Understand, and Measure Compassion When We See It?Frontiers in psychology · 2020Review
- Network Neuroscience and the Adapted Mind: Rethinking the Role of Network Theories in Evolutionary Psychology.Frontiers in psychology · 2020Review
- Increased similarity of neural responses to experienced and empathic distress in costly altruism.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Extraordinary Altruists Exhibit Enhanced Self-Other Overlap in Neural Responses to Distress.Psychological science · 2018Article
- Amygdala-midbrain connectivity indicates a role for the mammalian parental care system in human altruism.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Costly altruism benefitting a stranger is a rare but evolutionarily conserved phenomenon. This behaviour may be supported by limbic and midbrain circuitry that supports mammalian caregiving. In rodents, reciprocal connections between the amygdala and the midbrain periaqueductal grey (PAG) are critical for generating protective responses toward vulnerable and distressed offspring. We used functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging to explore whether these regions play a role in supporting costly altruism in humans. We recruited a rare population of altruists, all of whom had donated a kidney to a stranger, and measured activity and functional connectivity of the amygdala and PAG as altruists and matched controls responded to care-eliciting scenarios. When these scenarios were coupled with pre-attentive distress cues, altruists' sympathy corresponded to greater activity in the left amygdala and PAG, and functional connectivity analyses revealed increased coupling between these regions in altruists during this epoch. We also found that altruists exhibited greater fractional anisotropy within the left amygdala-PAG white matter tract. These results, coupled with previous evidence of altruists' increased amygdala-linked sensitivity to distress, are consistent with costly altruism resulting from enhanced care-oriented responses to vulnerability and distress that are supported by recruitment of circuitry that supports mammalian parental care.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.