ArticleCommunications biology2021
Basolateral and central amygdala orchestrate how we learn whom to trust.
Article in Communications biology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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
7 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 10 citations in OpenAlex.
- Trust learning in the repeated trust game: A meta-analytic study.British journal of psychology (London, England : 1953) · 2026Pooled it
- A neuroimaging meta-analysis on social impression formation of stable characteristics.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2026Pooled it
- Age and loneliness relate to reduced trust learning and alterations in amygdala function.iScience · 2026Article
- Perception of facial trustworthiness in mild cognitive impairment.Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD · 2026Article
- From hidden springs to endless oceans: exploring the complementary roles of the amygdala and hippocampus in phenomenal experience.Neuroscience of consciousness · 2026Article
- Article
- Mentalizing in an economic games context is associated with enhanced activation and connectivity in the left temporoparietal junction.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Cooperation and mutual trust are essential in our society, yet not everybody is trustworthy. In this fMRI study, 62 healthy volunteers performed a repeated trust game, placing trust in a trustworthy or an untrustworthy player. We found that the central amygdala was active during trust behavior planning while the basolateral amygdala was active during outcome evaluation. When planning the trust behavior, central and basolateral amygdala activation was stronger for the untrustworthy player compared to the trustworthy player but only in participants who actually learned to differentiate the trustworthiness of the players. Independent of learning success, nucleus accumbens encoded whether trust was reciprocated. This suggests that learning whom to trust is not related to reward processing in the nucleus accumbens, but rather to engagement of the amygdala. Our study overcomes major empirical gaps between animal models and human neuroimaging and shows how different subnuclei of the amygdala and connected areas orchestrate learning to form different subjective trustworthiness beliefs about others and guide trust choice behavior.
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What OpenQuestion holds
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.