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Interoception drives increased rational decision-making in meditators playing the ultimatum game

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dc.contributorVirginia Techen
dc.contributor.authorKirk, Ulrichen
dc.contributor.authorDownar, Jonathanen
dc.contributor.authorMontague, P. Readen
dc.date.accessioned2017-09-08T14:18:50Zen
dc.date.available2017-09-08T14:18:50Zen
dc.date.issued2011-04-18en
dc.description.abstractHuman decision-making is often conceptualized as a competition between cognitive and emotional processes in the brain. Deviations from rational processes are believed to derive from inclusion of emotional factors in decision-making. Here, we investigate whether experienced Buddhist meditators are better equipped to regulate emotional processes compared with controls during economic decision-making in the Ultimatum Game. We show that meditators accept unfair offers on more than half of the trials, whereas controls only accept unfair offers on onequarter of the trials. By applying fMRI we show that controls recruit the anterior insula during unfair offers. Such responses are powerful predictors of rejecting offers in social interaction. By contrast, meditators display attenuated activity in high-level emotional representations of the anterior insula and increased activity in the low-level interoceptive representations of the posterior insula. In addition we show that a subset of control participants who play rationally (i.e., accepts >85% unfair offers) recruits the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex presumably reflecting increased cognitive demands, whereas rational meditators by contrast display elevated activity in the somatosensory cortex and posterior superior temporal cortex. In summary, when assessing unfairness in the Ultimatum Game, meditators activate a different network of brain areas compared with controls enabling them to uncouple negative emotional reactions from their behavior. These findings highlight the clinically and socially important possibility that sustained training in mindfulness meditation may impact distinct domains of human decision-making.en
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2011.00049en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/78841en
dc.identifier.volume5en
dc.language.isoen_USen
dc.publisherFrontiersen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectdecision-makingen
dc.subjectfMRIen
dc.subjectmindfulnessen
dc.subjectposterior insulaen
dc.subjectanterior insulaen
dc.subjectsocial fairnessen
dc.subjectDLPFCen
dc.subjectstriatumen
dc.titleInteroception drives increased rational decision-making in meditators playing the ultimatum gameen
dc.title.serialFrontiers in Neuroscienceen
dc.typeArticle - Refereeden

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Destination Area: Adaptive Brain and Behavior (ABB)
Scholarly Works, Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC