Working together may be better: activation of reward centers during a cooperative maze task.

Humans use theory of mind when predicting the thoughts and feelings and actions of others. There is accumulating evidence that cooperation with a computerized game correlates with a unique pattern of brain activation. To investigate the neural correlates of cooperation in real-time we conducted an fMRI hyperscanning study.

In-group and out-group membership mediates anterior cingulate activation to social exclusion.

FUNCTIONAL MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING WAS EMPLOYED TO EXAMINE SENSITIVITY TO SOCIAL EXCLUSION IN THREE CONDITIONS: same-race, other-race, and self-resembling faces. The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), specifically the dorsal ACC, has been targeted as a key substrate in the physical and social pain matrix and was hypothesized to regulate activation response to various facial conditions. We show that participants demonstrated greatest ACC activation when being excluded by self-resembling and same-race faces, relative to other-race faces.

Self-face resemblance attenuates other-race face effect in the amygdala.

People respond favorably toward self-resembling faces. We investigated the pattern of responding in the amygdala of Caucasian participants to self-face resemblance expressed in same and other-race (African descent) faces. The amygdala response was 1) non-linear to faces as a function of self-facial resemblance and 2) attenuated to other-race self-resembling faces when regressed with implicit racial attitudes.

Implicit trustworthiness ratings of self-resembling faces activate brain centers involved in reward.

On the basis of Hamilton's (Hamilton, W. D. (1964).

The neural basis of facial resemblance.

Humans respond favourably to self-resembling faces. Self-facial resemblance is a mechanism for self-referent phenotypic matching by which humans can differentiate genetic kin from other members of a social group. To better understand how the brain makes discriminations between kin and non-kin, we investigated the neural correlates of self-resemblance in faces that were transformed along the dimensions of race and sex.