Correction: Chinese Adaptation and Psychometric Properties of the Child Version of the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0150206.].

Distinguishing neural correlates of context-dependent advantageous- and disadvantageous-inequity aversion.

Humans can integrate social contextual information into decision-making processes to adjust their responses toward inequity. This context dependency emerges when individuals receive more (i.e., advantageous inequity) or less (i.e., disadvantageous inequity) than others. However, it is not clear whether context-dependent processing of advantageous and disadvantageous inequity involves differential neurocognitive mechanisms. Here, we used fMRI to address this question by combining an interactive game that modulates social contexts (e.g., interpersonal guilt) with computational models that enable us to characterize individual weights on inequity aversion. In each round, the participant played a dot estimation task with an anonymous coplayer. The coplayer would receive pain stimulation with 50% probability when either of them responded incorrectly. At the end of each round, the participant completed a variant of dictator game, which determined payoffs for him/herself and the coplayer. Computational modeling demonstrated the context dependency of inequity aversion: when causing pain to the coplayer (i.e., guilt context), participants cared more about the advantageous inequity and became more tolerant of the disadvantageous inequity, compared with other conditions. Consistently, neuroimaging results suggested the two types of inequity were associated with differential neurocognitive substrates. While the context-dependent processing of advantageous inequity was associated with social- and mentalizing-related processes, involving left anterior insula, right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, the context-dependent processing of disadvantageous inequity was primarily associated with emotion- and conflict-related processes, involving left posterior insula, right amygdala, and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. These results extend our understanding of decision-making processes related to inequity aversion.

Higher Status Honesty Is Worth More: The Effect of Social Status on Honesty Evaluation.

Promises are crucial for maintaining trust in social hierarchies. It is well known that not all promises are kept; yet the effect of social status on responses to promises being kept or broken is far from understood, as are the neural processes underlying this effect. Here we manipulated participants' social status before measuring their investment behavior as Investor in iterated Trust Game (TG). Participants decided how much to invest in their partners, who acted as Trustees in TG, after being informed that their partners of higher or lower social status either promised to return half of the multiplied sum (4 × invested amount), did not promise, or had no opportunity to promise. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded when the participants saw the Trustees' decisions in which the partners always returned half of the time, regardless of the experimental conditions. Trustee decisions to return or not after promising to do so were defined as honesty and dishonesty, respectively. Behaviorally, participants invested more when Trustees promised than when Trustees had no opportunity to promise, and this effect was greater for higher status than lower status Trustees. Neurally, when viewing Trustees' return decisions, participants' medial frontal negativity (MFN) responses (250-310 ms post onset) were more negative when Trustees did not return than when they did return, suggesting that not returning was an expectancy violation. P300 responses were only sensitive to higher status return feedback, and were more positive-going for higher status partner returns than for lower status partner returns, suggesting that higher status returns may have been more rewarding/motivationally significant. Importantly, only participants in low subjective socioeconomic status (SES) evidenced an increased P300 effect for higher status than lower status honesty (honesty - dishonesty), suggesting that higher status honesty was especially rewarding/motivationally significant for participants with low SES. Taken together, our results suggest that in an earlier time window, MFN encodes return valence, regardless of honesty or social status, which are addressed in a later cognitive appraisal process (P300). Our findings suggest that social status influences honesty perception at both a behavioral and neural level, and that subjective SES may modulate this effect.

How do self-interest and other-need interact in the brain to determine altruistic behavior?

Altruistic behavior, i.e., promoting the welfare of others at a cost to oneself, is subserved by the integration of various social, affective, and economic factors represented in extensive brain regions. However, it is unclear how different regions interact to process/integrate information regarding the helper's interest and recipient's need when deciding whether to behave altruistically. Here we combined an interactive game with functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to characterize the neural network underlying the processing/integration of self-interest and other-need. At the behavioral level, high self-risk decreased helping behavior and high other-need increased helping behavior. At the neural level, activity in medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC) were positively associated with self-risk levels, and activity in right inferior parietal lobe (rIPL) and rDLPFC were negatively associated with other-need levels. Dynamic causal modeling further suggested that both MPFC and rIPL were extrinsically connected to rDLPFC; high self-risk enhanced the effective connectivity from MPFC to rDLPFC, and the modulatory effect of other-need on the connectivity from rIPL to rDLPFC positively correlated with the modulatory effect of other-need on individuals' helping rate. Two tDCS experiments provided causal evidence that rDLPFC affects both self-interest and other-need concerns, and rIPL selectively affects the other-need concerns. These findings suggest a crucial role of the MPFC-IPL-DLPFC network during altruistic decision-making, with rDLPFC as a central node for integrating and modulating motives regarding self-interest and other-need.

When Do Low Status Individuals Accept Less? The Interaction between Self- and Other-Status during Resource Distribution.

In real-world social interactions, social status influences responses to resource distribution. However, the way in which one's own social status interacts with another's status to influence responses to resource distribution is far from clear. In the current study, we dynamically manipulated participants' social status and then asked participants to act as recipients in the ultimatum game (UG) along with proposers whose social status was made known to the participants. Experiment 1 used a between-participants design in which the participants were assigned as being of either high or low status according to their performance in a math competition (i.e., rank-inducing task). In Experiment 2, social status was manipulated within-subjects using the same rank-inducing task, with rounds of UG interleaved between rank-inducing sessions. Findings from the two experiments showed that both self-status and other-status influenced responses to UG offers, as participants were more likely to accept low offers from high status than low status proposers; this effect was particularly robust for low status participants when compared with high status participants. These findings suggest that, in comparison with individuals in high status, individuals in low status are more willing to accept low offers during resource distribution and are more affected by other-status considerations.

Chinese Adaptation and Psychometric Properties of the Child Version of the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire.

This study aimed to validate a Chinese's adaption of the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire for children (CERQ-Ck). This self-report instrument evaluates nine cognitive emotion regulation strategies that can be used by children after experiencing a negative life event. The CERQ-Ck was evaluated in a sample of 1403 elementary students between the ages of 9 and 11 by using cluster sampling. All the item-correlation coefficients for CERQ-Ck were above 0.30. The internal consistencies of the nine factors suggested moderate reliability (0.66 to 0.73). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicated that the current version had the same structure as the original instrument (Tucker-Lewis index = 0.912, comparative fit index = 0.922, root mean square error of approximation = 0.032, standardized root mean square residual = 0.044). A second-order factor and a third-order factor structure were also found. Test-retest correlations (0.53 to 0.70, ps < 0.01) over a period of 1 month, which ranged from acceptable to moderately strong were obtained from a random and stratified subsample of elementary students (N = 76). In addition, we analyzed convergent validity in relation to CERQ-Ck and the Chinese version of the Children's Depression Inventory model dimensions with a subsample of 1083 elementary students. Multiple-group CFA confirmed the measurement invariance for both the male and female groups (ΔCFI < 0.01, ΔRMSEA < 0.015). Overall, results indicate that CERQ-Ck has similar psychometric properties to the original instrument as well as with adequate reliability and validity to investigate the nine cognitive emotion regulation strategies during late childhood developmental periods.

Social status modulates the neural response to unfairness.

In human society, which is organized by social hierarchies, resources are usually allocated unequally and based on social status. In this study, we analyze how being endowed with different social statuses in a math competition affects the perception of fairness during asset allocation in a subsequent Ultimatum Game (UG). Behavioral data showed that when participants were in high status, they were more likely to reject unfair UG offers than in low status. This effect of social status correlated with activity in the right anterior insula (rAI) and with the functional connectivity between the rAI and a region in the anterior middle cingulate cortex, indicating that these two brain regions are crucial for integrating contextual factors and social norms during fairness perception. Additionally, there was an interaction between social status and UG offer fairness in the amygdala and thalamus, implicating the role of these regions in the modulation of social status on fairness perception. These results demonstrate the effect of social status on fairness perception and the potential neural underpinnings for this effect.

Serotonin receptor gene (HTR2A) T102C polymorphism modulates individuals' perspective taking ability and autistic-like traits.

Previous studies have indicated that empathic traits, such as perspective taking, are associated with the levels of serotonin in the brain and with autism spectrum conditions. Inspired by the finding that the serotonin receptor 2A gene (HTR2A) modulates the availability of serotonin, this study investigated to what extent HTR2A modulates individuals' perspective taking ability and autistic-like traits. To examine the associations of the functional HTR2A polymorphism T102C (rs6313) with individuals' perspective taking abilities and autistic-like traits, we differentiated individuals according to this polymorphism and measured empathic and autistic-like traits with Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ) scale in 523 Chinese people. The results indicated that this polymorphism was significantly associated with the scores on Perspective Taking and Personal Distress subscales of IRI, and Communication subscale of AQ. Individuals with a greater number of the C alleles were less likely to spontaneously adopt the point of view of others, more likely to be anxious when observing the pain endured by others, and more likely to have communication problems. Moreover, the genotype effect on communication problems was mediated by individuals' perspective taking ability. These findings provide evidence that the HTR2A T102C polymorphism is a predictor of individual differences in empathic and autistic-like traits and highlight the role of the gene in the connection between perspective taking and autistic-like traits.

Low social status decreases the neural salience of unfairness.

Social hierarchy exists in almost all social species and affects everything from resource allocation to the development of intelligence. Previous studies showed that status within a social hierarchy influences the perceived fairness of income allocation. However, the effect of one's social status on economic decisions is far from clear, as are the neural processes underlying these decisions. In this study, we dynamically manipulated participants' social status and analyzed their behavior as recipients in the ultimatum game (UG), during which event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. Behavioral results showed that acceptance rates for offers increased with the fairness level of offers. Importantly, participants were less likely to accept unfair offers when they were endowed with high status than with low status. In addition, cues indicating low status elicited a more positive P2 than cues indicating high status in an earlier time window (170-240 ms), and cues indicating high status elicited a more negative N400 than cues indicating low status in a later time window (350-520 ms). During the actual reception of offers, the late positivity potential (LPP, 400-700 ms) for unfair offers was more positive in the high status condition than in the low status condition, suggesting a decreased arousal for unfair offers during low status. These findings suggest a strong role of social status in modulating individual behavioral and neural responses to fairness.