Papers by Thomas Baumgartner
Contributing to and maintaining public goods are important for a functioning society. In reality,... more Contributing to and maintaining public goods are important for a functioning society. In reality, however, we see large variations in contribution behavior. While some individuals are not cooperative, others are highly so. Still others cooperate only to the extent they believe others will. Although these distinct behavioral types clearly have a divergent social impact, the sources of heterogeneity are poorly understood. We used source-localized resting electroencephalography in combination with a model-free clustering approach to participants' behavior in the Public Goods Game to explain heterogeneity. Findings revealed that compared to noncooperators, both conditional cooperators and unconditional cooperators are characterized by higher baseline activation in the right temporo-parietal junction, an area involved in social cognition. Interestingly, conditional cooperators were further characterized by higher baseline activation in the left lateral prefrontal cortex, an area involved in behavioral control. Our findings suggest that conditional cooperators' better capacities for behavioral control enable them to control their propensity to cooperate and thus to minimize the risk of exploitation by noncooperators.
Psychological Science, 2010
Human readiness to incur personal costs to punish norm violators is a key force in the maintenanc... more Human readiness to incur personal costs to punish norm violators is a key force in the maintenance of social norms. The willingness to punish is, however, characterized by vast individual heterogeneity that is poorly understood. In fact, this heterogeneity has so far defied explanations in terms of individual-level demographic or psychological variables. Here, we use resting electroencephalography, a stable measure of individual differences in cortical activity, to show that a highly specific neural marker--baseline cortical activity in the right prefrontal cortex--predicts individuals' punishment behavior. The analysis of task-independent individual variation in cortical baseline activity provides a new window into the neurobiology of decision making by bringing dispositional neural markers to the forefront of the analysis.
Neuron, 2008
Trust and betrayal of trust are ubiquitous in human societies. Recent behavioral evidence shows t... more Trust and betrayal of trust are ubiquitous in human societies. Recent behavioral evidence shows that the neuropeptide oxytocin increases trust among humans, thus offering a unique chance of gaining a deeper understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying trust and the adaptation to breach of trust. We examined the neural circuitry of trusting behavior by combining the intranasal, double-blind, administration of oxytocin with fMRI. We find that subjects in the oxytocin group show no change in their trusting behavior after they learned that their trust had been breached several times while subjects receiving placebo decrease their trust. This difference in trust adaptation is associated with a specific reduction in activation in the amygdala, the midbrain regions, and the dorsal striatum in subjects receiving oxytocin, suggesting that neural systems mediating fear processing (amygdala and midbrain regions) and behavioral adaptations to feedback information (dorsal striatum) modulate oxytocin's effect on trust. These findings may help to develop deeper insights into mental disorders such as social phobia and autism, which are characterized by persistent fear or avoidance of social interactions.
Background. Preparing for potentially threatening events in the future is essential for survival.... more Background. Preparing for potentially threatening events in the future is essential for survival. Anticipating the future to be unpleasant is also a cognitive key feature of depression. We hypothesized that ' pessimism '-related emotion processing would characterize brain activity in major depression.
NeuroReport, 2008
The quick identi¢cation of potentially threatening events is a crucial cognitive capacity to surv... more The quick identi¢cation of potentially threatening events is a crucial cognitive capacity to survive in a changing environment. Previous functional MRI data revealed the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the region of the left intraparietal sulcus (IPS) to be involved in the perception of emotionally negative stimuli. For assessing chronometric aspects of emotion processing, we applied transcranial magnetic stimulation above these areas at di¡erent times after negative and neutral picture presentation.
Strategies of cognitive control are helpful in reducing anxiety experienced during anticipation o... more Strategies of cognitive control are helpful in reducing anxiety experienced during anticipation of unpleasant or potentially unpleasant events. We investigated the associated cerebral information processing underlying the use of a specific cognitive control strategy during the anticipation of affect-laden events. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined differential brain activity during anticipation of events of unknown and negative emotional valence in a group of eighteen healthy subjects that used a cognitive control strategy, similar to "reality checking" as used in psychotherapy, compared with a group of sixteen subjects that did not exert cognitive control. While expecting unpleasant stimuli, the "cognitive control" group showed higher activity in left medial and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex areas but reduced activity in the left extended amygdala, pulvinar/lateral geniculate nucleus and fusiform gyrus. Cognitive control during the "unknown" expectation was associated with reduced amygdalar activity as well and further with reduced insular and thalamic activity. The amygdala activations associated with cognitive control correlated negatively with the reappraisal scores of an emotion regulation questionnaire. The results indicate that cognitive control of particularly unpleasant emotions is associated with elevated prefrontal cortex activity that may serve to attenuate emotion processing in for instance amygdala, and, notably, in perception related brain areas.
NeuroImage, 2007
Since we do not know what future holds for us, we prepare for expected emotional events in order ... more Since we do not know what future holds for us, we prepare for expected emotional events in order to deal with a pleasant or threatening environment. From an evolutionary perspective, it makes sense to be particularly prepared for the worst-case scenario. We were interested to evaluate whether this assumption is reflected in the central nervous information processing associated with expecting visual stimuli of unknown emotional valence. While being scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging, healthy subjects were cued to expect and then perceive visual stimuli with a known emotional valence as pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral, as well as stimuli of unknown valence that could have been either pleasant or unpleasant. While anticipating pictures of unknown valence, the activity of emotion processing brain areas was similar to activity associated with expecting unpleasant pictures, but there were no areas in which the activity was similar to the activity when expecting pleasant pictures. The activity of the revealed regions, including bilateral insula, right inferior frontal gyrus, medial thalamus, and red nucleus, further correlated with the individual ratings of mood: the worse the mood, the higher the activity. These areas are supposedly involved in a network for internal adaptation and preparation processes in order to act according to potential or certain unpleasant events. Their activity appears to reflect a 'pessimistic' bias by anticipating the events of unknown valence to be unpleasant.
NeuroImage, 2013
a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f o Keywords: Impartiality Partiality Outgroup hostility Ingrou... more a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f o Keywords: Impartiality Partiality Outgroup hostility Ingroup favoritism Justice Third-party punishment Brain anatomy Social cognition Dorsomedial prefrontal cortex Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) Freesurfer
International Journal of Psychophysiology, 2006
Most previous neurophysiological studies evoked emotions by presenting visual stimuli. Models of ... more Most previous neurophysiological studies evoked emotions by presenting visual stimuli. Models of the emotion circuits in the brain have for the most part ignored emotions arising from musical stimuli. To our knowledge, this is the first emotion brain study which examined the influence of visual and musical stimuli on brain processing. Highly arousing pictures of the International Affective Picture System and classical musical excerpts were chosen to evoke the three basic emotions of happiness, sadness and fear. The emotional stimuli modalities were presented for 70 s either alone or combined (congruent) in a counterbalanced and random order. Electroencephalogram (EEG) Alpha-Power-Density, which is inversely related to neural electrical activity, in 30 scalp electrodes from 24 right-handed healthy female subjects, was recorded. In addition, heart rate (HR), skin conductance responses (SCR), respiration, temperature and psychometrical ratings were collected. Results showed that the experienced quality of the presented emotions was most accurate in the combined conditions, intermediate in the picture conditions and lowest in the sound conditions. Furthermore, both the psychometrical ratings and the physiological involvement measurements (SCR, HR, Respiration) were significantly increased in the combined and sound conditions compared to the picture conditions. Finally, repeated measures ANOVA revealed the largest Alpha-Power-Density for the sound conditions, intermediate for the picture conditions, and lowest for the combined conditions, indicating the strongest activation in the combined conditions in a distributed emotion and arousal network comprising frontal, temporal, parietal and occipital neural structures. Summing up, these findings demonstrate that music can markedly enhance the emotional experience evoked by affective pictures.
Brain Research, 2006
Music is an intriguing stimulus widely used in movies to increase the emotional experience.
Neuroticism and extraversion are proposed personality dimensions for individual emotion processin... more Neuroticism and extraversion are proposed personality dimensions for individual emotion processing. Neuroticism is correlated with depression and anxiety disorders, implicating a common neurobiological basis. Extraversion is rather inversely correlated with anxiety and depression. We examined neural correlates of personality in relation to depressiveness and anxiety in healthy adult subjects with functional magnetic resonance imaging during the cued anticipation of emotional stimuli. Distributed particularly prefrontal but also other cortical regions and the thalamus were associated with extraversion. Parieto-occipital and temporal regions and subcortically the caudate were correlated with neuroticism and affective measures. Neuroticism-related regions were partially cross-correlated with anxiety and depression and vice versa. Extraversion-related activity was not correlated with the other measures. The neural correlates of extraversion compared with those of neuroticism and affective measures fit with concepts of different neurobiological bases of the personality dimensions and point at predispositions for affective disorders.
Biological Psychiatry, 2003
The presence of social support has been associated with decreased stress responsiveness. Recent a... more The presence of social support has been associated with decreased stress responsiveness. Recent animal studies suggest that the neuropeptide oxytocin is implicated both in prosocial behavior and in the central nervous control of neuroendocrine responses to stress. This study was designed to determine the effects of social support and oxytocin on cortisol, mood, and anxiety responses to psychosocial stress in humans. Methods: In a placebo-controlled, double-blind study, 37 healthy men were exposed to the Trier Social Stress Test. All participants were randomly assigned to receive intranasal oxytocin (24 IU) or placebo 50 min before stress, and either social support from their best friend during the preparation period or no social support. Results: Salivary free cortisol levels were suppressed by social support in response to stress. Comparisons of preand poststress anxiety levels revealed an anxiolytic effect of oxytocin. More importantly, the combination of oxytocin and social support exhibited the lowest cortisol concentrations as well as increased calmness and decreased anxiety during stress. Conclusions: Oxytocin seems to enhance the buffering effect of social support on stress responsiveness. These results concur with data from animal research suggesting an important role of oxytocin as an underlying biological mechanism for stress-protective effects of positive social interactions.
Humans are noted for their capacity to over-ride self-interest in favor of normatively valued goa... more Humans are noted for their capacity to over-ride self-interest in favor of normatively valued goals. We examined the neural circuitry that is causally involved in normative, fairness-related decisions by generating a temporarily diminished capacity for costly normative behavior, a ‘deviant’ case, through non-invasive brain stimulation (repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation) and compared normal subjects’ functional magnetic resonance imaging signals with those of the deviant subjects. When fairness and economic self-interest were in conflict, normal subjects (who make costly normative decisions at a much higher frequency) displayed significantly higher activity in, and connectivity between, the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and the posterior ventromedial prefrontal cortex (pVMPFC). In contrast, when there was no conflict between fairness and economic self-interest, both types of subjects displayed identical neural patterns and behaved identically. These findings suggest that a parsimonious prefrontal network, the activation of right DLPFC and pVMPFC, and the connectivity between them, facilitates subjects’ willingness to incur the cost of normative decisions.
NeuroImage, 2015
Intergroup bias-the tendency to behave more positively toward an ingroup member than an outgroup ... more Intergroup bias-the tendency to behave more positively toward an ingroup member than an outgroup member-is a powerful social force, for good and ill. Although it is widely demonstrated, intergroup bias is not universal, as it is characterized by significant individual differences. Recently, attention has begun to turn to whether neuroanatomy might explain these individual differences in intergroup bias. However, no research to date has examined whether white matter microstructure could help determine differences in behavior toward ingroup and outgroup members. In the current research, we examine intergroup bias with the third-party punishment paradigm and white matter integrity and connectivity strength as determined by diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). We found that both increased white matter integrity at the right temporal-parietal junction (TPJ) and connectivity strength between the right TPJ and the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC) were associated with increased impartiality in the third-party punishment paradigm, i.e., reduced intergroup bias. Further, consistent with the role that these brain regions play in the mentalizing network, we found that these effects were mediated by mentalizing processes. Participants with greater white matter integrity at the right TPJ and connectivity strength between the right TPJ and the DMPFC employed mentalizing processes more equally for ingroup and outgroup members, and this non-biased use of mentalizing was associated with increased impartiality. The current results help shed light on the mechanisms of bias and, potentially, on interventions that promote impartiality over intergroup bias.
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Papers by Thomas Baumgartner