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The human brain views selfish behaviour towards genetic vs. non-genetic sibling differently

View ORCID ProfileMareike Bacha-Trams, View ORCID ProfileEnrico Glerean, View ORCID ProfileJuha Lahnakoski, Elisa Ryyppö, Mikko Sams, View ORCID ProfileIiro P. Jääskeläinen
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/112383
Mareike Bacha-Trams
1Brain and Mind Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
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  • For correspondence: mareike.bacha-trams@aalto.fi iiro.jaaskelainen@aalto.fi
Enrico Glerean
1Brain and Mind Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
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Juha Lahnakoski
1Brain and Mind Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
2Independent Max Planck Research Group for Social Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich, Germany
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Elisa Ryyppö
1Brain and Mind Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
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Mikko Sams
1Brain and Mind Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
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Iiro P. Jääskeläinen
1Brain and Mind Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
3Advanced Magnetic Imaging (AMI) Centre, Aalto NeuroImaging, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
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  • For correspondence: mareike.bacha-trams@aalto.fi iiro.jaaskelainen@aalto.fi
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Abstract

Previous behavioural studies have shown that humans act more altruistically towards kin. Whether and how such kinship preference translates into differential neurocognitive evaluation of social interactions has remained an open question. Here, we investigated how the human brain is engaged when viewing a moral dilemma between genetic vs. non-genetic sisters. During functional magnetic resonance imaging, a movie depicting refusal of organ donation between two sisters was shown, with participants guided to believe the sisters were related either genetically or by adoption. The participants selfreported that genetic relationship was not relevant to them, yet their brain activity told a different story. When the participants believed that the sisters were genetically related, inter-subject similarity of brain activity was significantly stronger in areas supporting response-conflict resolution, emotion regulation, and self-referential social cognition. Our results show that mere knowledge of a genetic relationship between interacting persons can robustly modulate social cognition of the perceiver.

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Posted February 28, 2017.
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The human brain views selfish behaviour towards genetic vs. non-genetic sibling differently
Mareike Bacha-Trams, Enrico Glerean, Juha Lahnakoski, Elisa Ryyppö, Mikko Sams, Iiro P. Jääskeläinen
bioRxiv 112383; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/112383
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The human brain views selfish behaviour towards genetic vs. non-genetic sibling differently
Mareike Bacha-Trams, Enrico Glerean, Juha Lahnakoski, Elisa Ryyppö, Mikko Sams, Iiro P. Jääskeläinen
bioRxiv 112383; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/112383

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