A role for the medial temporal lobe subsystem in guiding prosociality: the effect of episodic processes on willingness to help others

Brendan Gaesser, Josh Hirschfeld-Kroen, Emily A Wasserman, Mary Horn, Liane Young, Brendan Gaesser, Josh Hirschfeld-Kroen, Emily A Wasserman, Mary Horn, Liane Young

Abstract

Why are we willing to help others? Recent behavioral work on episodic processes (i.e. the ability to represent an event that is specific in time and place) suggests that imagining and remembering scenes of helping a person in need increases intentions to help. Here, we provide insight into the cognitive and neural mechanisms that enhance prosocial intentions via episodic simulation and memory. In Experiment 1, we scanned participants using functional neuroimaging as they imagined and remembered helping episodes, and completed non-episodic control conditions accounting for exposure to the story of need and conceptual priming of helping. Analyses revealed that activity in the medial temporal lobe (MTL) subsystem, as well as the right temporoparietal junction (RTPJ) predicted the effect of conditions on the strength of prosocial intentions. In Experiment 2, we used transcranial magnetic stimulation to disrupt activity in the RTPJ, and better isolate the contribution of MTL subsystem to prosocial intentions. The effect of conditions on willingness to help remained even when activity in the RTPJ was disrupted, suggesting that activity in the MTL subsystem may primarily support this prosocial effect. It seems our willingness to help may be guided, in part, by how easily we can construct imagined and remembered helping episodes.

Keywords: episodic simulation; medial temporal lobes; memory; moral cognition; prosocial.

© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Mean willingness to help, perspective-taking and scene imagery by condition. Willingness to help was significantly higher for ‘episodic’ compared to ‘control’ conditions. ‘episodic’ conditions were matched on the degree of willingness to help, perspective taking and scene imagery evoked by the helping scenario. Error bars indicate standard error of the mean.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Relationship between BOLD percent signal change and willingness to help across episodic and control conditions in bilateral hippocampus (top) and hippocampus (bottom) with defined masks also shown. BOLD signal in the parahippocampus and hippocampus negatively predicted willingness to help during the episodic conditions but not during the control conditions (Andrews-Hanna et al., 2010).
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Relationship between difficulty and willingness to help by condition. Task difficulty significantly predicted willingness to help only for episodic, but not control conditions, suggesting that the more easily imagined and remembered helping episodes are constructed the more willing one is to help in that scenario.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Mean ratings of willingness to help and perspective-taking across control and episodic behavioral conditions, under stimulation to control (TMS) and RTPJ (TMS). We did not observe evidence of an effect stimulating the RTPJ on willingness to help. Stimulating the RTPJ, however, did reduce ratings of perspective-taking in the ‘control’ condition, but not in the ‘episodic’ condition. Error bars indicate standard error of the mean.

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