RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 The neural circuitry of emotion-induced distortions of trust JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 129130 DO 10.1101/129130 A1 Jan B. Engelmann A1 Friederike Meyer A1 Christian C. Ruff A1 Ernst Fehr YR 2017 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/04/24/129130.abstract AB Aversive emotions are likely to be a key source of irrational human decision-making but still little is known about the underlying neural circuitry. Here, we show that aversive emotions distort trust decisions and cause significant changes in the associated neural circuitry. They reduce trust and suppress trust-specific activity in left temporoparietal junction (TPJ). In addition, aversive emotions reduce the functional connectivity between TPJ and emotion-related regions such as the amygdala. We also find that the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) plays a key role in mediating the impact of aversive emotions on brain-behavior relationships. Functional connectivity of right pSTS with left TPJ not only predicts mean trust taking in the absence of negative emotions, but aversive emotions also largely remove this association between TPJ-pSTS connectivity and behavioral trust. These findings may be useful for a better understanding of the neural circuitry of affective distortions and may thus help identify the neural bases of psychiatric diseases that are associated with emotion-related psychological and behavioral dysfunctions.