Research Hit: The Part of the Brain for Helping Others
Research in brain damaged patients highlight how a region of the brain is important for helping others
You’ve written previously on the social brain haven’t you?
Yes, various aspects of the social brain commonly come up and are popular with readers. This is a general review:
And what does this new research add?
There has been a lot of research into the social brain but social behaviours are also very different and hence a lot of research needs to be done. This particular research by Patricia Lockwood et al. of the University of Birmingham reviewed patients with and without damage to a region called the ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex (vmPFC).
And is this a social centre of the brain?
It has been associated with social decisions but is mostly considered a part of the brain that balances and/or evaluates pain and pleasure i.e. the internalised value of a decision or action.
But this research was cleverly constructed with participants interacting with but not meeting other participants they were interacting with. This is to remove other confounding factors.
For the record 25 participants had damage to the vmPFC, 15 others had damage to other ares of the brain, and 40 had undamaged brains.
And how did they help others?
In this they used a force grip model which is sometimes used in research and is quite a cool way to measure motivation because it involves physical action - not just a questionnaire of intention. It can also be used in a brain scanner which is an obvious requirement.
After interacting with another person they could then squeeze to get rewards, cash, for themselves and the other person thereby helping the other person.
And is the vmPFC involved in helping others?
Yes, it is. The results clearly showed that the vmPFC was necessary for motivation to help others. Those with vmPFC damage were:
less willing to choose to help others
exerted less force if they did decide to help
and earned overall less money (meaning the refusal to help others also impacted themselves financially)
And is it just the vmPFC?
Well, no, my review talks of a social super network in the brain - there are always multiple regions influencing any outcome in the brain. But this does show causality of the vmPFC in helping others - so here it is a key functional area. What’s more, by digging deeper into the data they could also identify which subregions exerted the most influence and even that damage to an adjacent region seems to make people more willing to help!
And can we zap the vmPFC of selfish individuals?
Unfortunately not - this helps us understand the social brain better and the regions that contribute to this super social network. Humans will also exhibit variation: some people may be highly willing to help - and others may be selfish. For society to flourish though this needs to stay in balance.
Here’s to helping others!
Indeed, my vmPFC seems to be pretty active here also.
Patricia L. Lockwood, Jo Cutler, Daniel Drew, Ayat Abdurahman, Deva Sanjeeva Jeyaretna, Matthew A. J. Apps, Masud Husain, Sanjay G. Manohar.
Human ventromedial prefrontal cortex is necessary for prosocial motivation.
Nature Human Behaviour, 2024
DOI: 10.1038/s41562-024-01899-4