The social brain and reward: social information processing in the human striatum

Summary & key facts

This article reviews brain studies and shows that the brain's reward system — especially a part called the striatum — responds not just to food or money but also to social things like praise, cooperation, competition, and following rules. The authors summarize evidence that the same brain circuits that tell us something feels good also help us learn about other people, form expectations of them, and make decisions in social situations. The review brings together many findings but does not claim to have the final answer about exactly how these brain signals create social behavior.

Key facts:

• The paper is a review, which means the authors looked at many brain studies and summarized what those studies found rather than running new experiments themselves.
• The striatum is a brain region involved in feeling reward. The review reports that this region responds to social rewards such as praise or approval as well as to nonsocial rewards like food or money.
• The same parts of the brain that value nonsocial rewards also seem to be involved when people learn about other people, form expectations of them, and make choices that involve others.
• Research summarized in the review links striatum activity to many kinds of social behavior. Those include deciding whether to cooperate, how to compete, and when to follow social norms or rules.
• Because this paper is a summary of existing studies, it highlights common patterns but also leaves open questions about exactly how brain signals cause social feelings and actions. More research is needed to clarify the details.

Abstract

In the highly social life of humans, rewards that are sought and experienced are intertwined with social relationships and interactions between people. Just as we value nonsocial rewards such as food or money, we also value social outcomes (e.g., praise from a superior). We use social information to evaluate and form expectations of others and to make decisions involving others. Here we review research demonstrating how the neural circuitry of reward, particularly the striatum, is also involved in processing social information and making decisions in social situations. This research provides an understanding of the neural basis for social behavior from the perspective of how we evaluate social experiences and how our social interactions and decisions are motivated. We review research addressing the common neural systems underlying evaluation of social and nonsocial rewards. The human striatum, known to play a key role in reward processing, displays signals related to a broad spectrum of social functioning, including evaluating social rewards, making decisions influenced by social factors, learning about social others, cooperating, competing, and following social norms. WIREs Cogn Sci 2014, 5:61-73. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1266 Conflict of interest: The authors have declared no conflicts of interest for this article. For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.

Topics

Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior

Categories

Cognitive Neuroscience Life Sciences Neuroscience

Tags

Artificial intelligence Cognition Cognitive psychology Computer science Dopamine Economic growth Economics Machine learning Neural correlates of consciousness Neuroscience Pedagogy Perspective (graphical) Praise Psychology Social change Social cognition Social competence Social learning Social neuroscience Social psychology Social relation Striatum Value (mathematics) Ventral striatum