2023-05-18 20:10:14
Discovered the areas of the brain involved in dishonest choices. These are revealed by a new study conducted in the Social and Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory of the Santa Lucia Irccs Foundation in collaboration with the Psychology Department of Sapienza University of Rome and with the Neuroimaging Laboratory of the Santa Lucia Irccs Foundation. Lying to others for your own benefit, with the risk of risking your reputation, involves certain areas of the brain, detectable through the functional magnetic resonance technique. The activation of these areas is not the same for everyone, but varies according to personality traits.
Through this technique, in fact, it was also possible to identify the differences in brain activation when the participants decided whether to lie or not while their reputation could be at risk. The study, published in the journal ‘Communications Biology’, involved 34 healthy people aged between 20 and 46, and used a simple game associated with the possibility of earning a cash prize with functional magnetic resonance imaging, a non-invasive technology that analyzes brain activity in real time by measuring blood flow to various areas of the brain.
The card game involved the interaction between two players: the player outside the magnetic resonance had to try to draw the trump card between two possible ones without being able to verify the result of his choice. The participant within the magnetic resonance had instead the task of observing and communicating the outcome of the game. He could then decide whether to tell the truth or lie, changing the outcome of the game to his advantage, aware that in half of the cases the other participant could discover the lie.
“The results of the research – comment Valerio Santangelo and Lennie Dupont, researchers of the neuroimaging laboratory of the Santa Lucia Irccs Foundation – show that dishonest decisions are associated with an increase in activity in a cortico-subcortical circuit that includes the bilateral anterior cingulate ( Acc), the anterior insula (Ai), the left dorsolateral prefrontal, the supplementary motor area, and the right caudate nucleus”. As expected, people tend to decrease the number of selfish lies while their reputation is at risk.
Thanks to neuroimaging it was possible to highlight that selfish lies during the reputation-at-risk condition were linked to increased connectivity between the bilateral anterior cingulate cortex and the left anterior insula, two brain regions that are strongly involved in emotional processing and in cognitive control. The research team demonstrated that the brain activation of these areas is not the same for all participants, but varies according to personality traits.
“In particular, the more manipulative individuals – explains Maria Serena Panasiti, clinical neuroscientist involved in the study – show less involvement of the anterior cingulate during lies for their own benefit, but greater involvement during the truth for the benefit of others. This highlights the need of cognitive control only when the decision conflicts with one’s goals, in this case that of manipulating others to one’s advantage”. “Our research provides important insights into the neural basis of dishonest decisions during social interactions. “Understanding these mechanisms could help develop strategies to promote more ethical and responsible behaviors in different social contexts,” comments Salvatore Maria Aglioti, study coordinator .
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