Uncovering individual variations in bystander intervention of injustice through intrinsic brain connectivity patterns

• Published in: NeuroImage (Orlando, Fla.) Vol. 285; p. 120468
• Main Authors: Tang, Yancheng, Hu, Yang, Zhuang, Jie, Feng, Chunliang, Zhou, Xiaolin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.01.2024; Elsevier Limited; Elsevier
• Subjects: Behavior; Brain - diagnostic imaging; Brain Mapping; Cortex (cingulate); Endowment; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Humans; Individual difference; Injustice; Inter-subject representational similarity analysis (IS-RSA); Intervention; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Neural networks; Personality; Personality traits; Prefrontal cortex; Prefrontal Cortex - diagnostic imaging; Punishment; Resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI); Resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC); Third party; Third-party intervention; Resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI); Resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC); Inter-subject representational similarity analysis (IS-RSA); Third-party intervention; Individual difference
• ISSN: 1053-8119; 1095-9572; 1095-9572
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.120468

•Heterogeneity in third-party intervention is explored with a novel approach.•IS-RSA is applied to rs-fMRI.•rs-FC patterns in TPP networks are related to the general intervention propensity.•Distinct rs-FC patterns are linked with the helping and punishment propensity.•Post-hoc predictive modeling confirms the validity of IS-RSA findings. When confronted with injustice, individuals often intervene as third parties to restore justice by either punishing the perpetrator or helping the victim, even at their own expense. However, little is known about how individual differences in third-party intervention propensity are related to inter-individual variability in intrinsic brain connectivity patterns and how these associations vary between help and punishment intervention. To address these questions, we employed a novel behavioral paradigm in combination with resting-state fMRI and inter-subject representational similarity analysis (IS-RSA). Participants acted as third-party bystanders and needed to decide whether to maintain the status quo or intervene by either helping the disadvantaged recipient (Help condition) or punishing the proposer (Punish condition) at a specific cost. Our analyses focused on three brain networks proposed in the third-party punishment (TPP) model: the salience (e.g., dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, dACC), central executive (e.g., dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, dlPFC), and default mode (e.g., dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, dmPFC; temporoparietal junction, TPJ) networks. IS-RSA showed that individual differences in resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC) patterns within these networks were associated with the general third-party intervention propensity. Moreover, rs-FC patterns of the right dlPFC and right TPJ were more strongly associated with individual differences in the helping propensity rather than the punishment propensity, whereas the opposite pattern was observed for the dmPFC. Post-hoc predictive modeling confirmed the predictive power of rs-FC in these regions for intervention propensity across individuals. Collectively, these findings shed light on the shared and distinct roles of key regions in TPP brain networks at rest in accounting for individual variations in justice-restoring intervention behaviors.