Psychological Development and Education ›› 2012, Vol. 28 ›› Issue (6): 658-664.

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The Formation Mechanism of Altruistic Punishment and Its Neural Mechanism

DING Yi, JI Ting-ting, CHEN Xu   

  1. Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University; Research Center of Mental Health Education, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
  • Online:2012-11-15 Published:2012-11-15

Abstract: Altruistic punishment is a behaviour in which individuals punish defectors at a cost to themselves.It plays an important role in the evolution of human cooperation.Cognition control and emotional gratification are used to illustrate the formation mechanism of altruistic punishment.In addition,altruistic punishment may be governed by multiple independent neural systems:a rule-based system based in DLPFC and an emotion-driven system including the mPFC,insula and striatum.Future researches on altruistic punishment should focus on the following aspects,such as deepening our understanding of its formation mechanisms and neural mechanisms,exploring the genetic bases of altruistic punishment and at last carrying out natural research.

Key words: altruistic punishment, cognitive control, emotional gratification, neural mechanism

CLC Number: 

  • B844
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