ArticlePLoS biology2026
Augmentation of frontoparietal gamma-band phase coupling enhances human altruistic behavior.
Article in PLoS biology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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Abstract
Cooperation, productivity, and cohesion in human societies depend on altruism, the tendency to share resources with others even though this is costly. While altruism is a widely shared social norm, people vary strongly in their inclination to behave altruistically, in particular across situations with different types of inequality in resource distribution. What neurobiological factors underlie this variability? And can these be targeted by interventions to enhance altruistic behavior? Here, we build on electroencephalography (EEG) evidence that altruistic choices during disadvantageous inequality correlate with oscillatory gamma-band coherence between frontal regions (representing other's interest) and parietal regions (representing neural evidence accumulation). We apply a transcranial alternating current stimulation protocol designed to exogenously enhance this fronto-parietal coherence and find that this leads to increased altruism, specifically during disadvantageous inequality as hypothesized based on the EEG findings. Computational modeling reveals that this transcranial entrainment does not just add noise to the decision process but specifically increases the weight individuals assign to other-regarding concerns during choices. Our findings show that altruism can be enhanced by neurostimulation designed to enhance oscillatory synchronization between frontal and parietal areas. This establishes a neural basis for altruism and identifies a neural target for interventions aimed at improving prosocial behavior.
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