Acute stress counteracts framing-induced generosity boosts in social discounting in young healthy men.

Most individuals are willing to forego resources for the benefit of others, but their willingness to do so typically declines as a function of social distance between the donor and recipient, a phenomenon termed social discounting. We recently showed that participants were more altruistic towards strangers when a costly generous choice was framed as preventing a monetary loss to the other rather than granting them a gain. Here, we asked if acute stress would diminish this frame effect on social discounting. To test this hypothesis, 102 male participants engaged in either the Maastricht Acute Stress Task, or a matched, non-stressful control procedure. They subsequently played a two-frame dictator game version of the social discounting paradigm. Whereas both frame conditions were economically equivalent, in the give frame, participants were asked how much money they would share with other persons on variable social distance levels, and in the take frame, they decided on how much money to take away from the others. While non-stressed control participants showed increased generosity toward strangers in the take compared to the give frame, similar to previous findings of our group, stress attenuated this frame effect on social discounting by reducing generosity toward strangers in the take frame. These findings confirm that stress can corrupt prosocial motives and social norm compliance, diminishing prosocial tendencies toward unfamiliar others.

Definition and characterization of an extended multiple-demand network.

Neuroimaging evidence suggests that executive functions (EF) depend on brain regions that are not closely tied to specific cognitive demands but rather to a wide range of behaviors. A multiple-demand (MD) system has been proposed, consisting of regions showing conjoint activation across multiple demands. Additionally, a number of studies defining networks specific to certain cognitive tasks suggest that the MD system may be composed of a number of sub-networks each subserving specific roles within the system. We here provide a robust definition of an extended MDN (eMDN) based on task-dependent and task-independent functional connectivity analyses seeded from regions previously shown to be convergently recruited across neuroimaging studies probing working memory, attention and inhibition, i.e., the proposed key components of EF. Additionally, we investigated potential sub-networks within the eMDN based on their connectional and functional similarities. We propose an eMDN network consisting of a core whose integrity should be crucial to performance of most operations that are considered higher cognitive or EF. This then recruits additional areas depending on specific demands.

A friend in need: Time-dependent effects of stress on social discounting in men.

Stress is often associated with a tend-and-befriend response, a putative coping mechanism where people behave generously towards others in order to invest in social relationships to seek comfort and mutual protection. However, this increase in generosity is expected to be directed only towards a delimited number of socially close, but not distant individuals, because it would be maladaptive to befriend everyone alike. In addition, the endocrinological stress response follows a distinct temporal pattern, and it is believed that tend-and-befriend tendencies can be observed mainly under acute stress. By contrast, the aftermath (>1h after) of stress is associated with endocrinological regulatory processes that are proposed to cause increased executive control and reduced emotional reactivity, possibly eliminating the need to tend-and-befriend. In the present experiment, we set out to investigate how these changes immediately and >1h after a stressful experience affect social-distance-dependent generosity levels, a phenomenon called social discounting. We hypothesized that stress has a time-dependent effect on social discounting, with decisions made shortly after (20min), but not 90min after stress showing increased generosity particularly to close others. We found that men tested 20min after stressor onset indeed showed increased generosity towards close but not distant others compared to non-stressed men or men tested 90min after stressor onset. These findings contribute to our understanding on how stress affects prosocial behavior by highlighting the importance of social closeness and the timing of stress relative to the decision as modulating factors in this type of decision making in men.

A three stage model of awareness: formulation and initial experimental support.

The various components which together make up the complex state of consciousness require neural support involving a connected network of many brain areas at differing levels. At the lowest level is non-aware processing, of which there is not direct awareness. There are also modules involved in processing with awareness but without focussed attention. Finally there must be a set of modules involved in directing attention in a controlled manner. We expect to be able to dissociate the various components of the three-stage network by using different levels of attention. The results of an auditory experiment performed under three different levels of awareness and attention are analysed to show support for the three-stage model of awareness. The relevant auditory areas are delineated.