DOI: 10.25377/sussex.6756890.v1
title: Dataset: thresholded maps for research paper: A comparative fMRI meta-analysis of altruistic and strategic decisions to give

description: Data for paper appearing in NeuroImage, published online September 2018 (abstract below). More data related to this publication is available in separate datasets in the same collection, DOIs:Unthresholded maps: https://doi.org/10.25377/sussex.6756899Jackknife maps: https://doi.org/10.25377/sussex.6757292Peaks: https://doi.org/10.25377/sussex.6756872<br>This folder contains the thresholded maps from the mean meta-analyses of altruistic and strategic prosocial decisions, overlap and comparisons between the two groups. These maps are in .nii format so can be opened in many neuroimaging viewers. If you do not have a viewer installed, one free option is MRIcron which can be downloaded from www.nitrc.org/projects/mricron. They can also be viewed online through NeuroVault, see the third link in "references" below.<br><br>Explanations of the components of the file names are below.<br>"Thresh": all maps in this folder are thresholded, see other folder for unthresholded maps.<br>"mean_altruistic" or "mean_strategic": the meta-analytic average of a group of prosocial decisions (altruistic or strategic).<br>"overlap": the conjunction between altruistic and strategic prosocial decisions.<br><br>"comparison": the contrast between altruistic and strategic prosocial decisions (prosocial = altruistic and strategic).<br><br>"(X vs. Y)": the contrast in the map.<br>"covariate": calculated using the covariate coding control complexity (see paper for details).<br>"subgroup": calculated only using the subgroup of studies for which a selfish control was available (see paper for details).<br>Links to the paper can be found in the references section below: 1) On NeuroImage 2) Open access version on the Social Decision Lab website.<br><br><b>Publication abstract:</b>The decision to share resources is fundamental for cohesive societies. Humans can be motivated to give for many reasons. Some generosity incurs a definite cost, with no extrinsic reward to the act, but instead provides intrinsic satisfaction (labelled here as ‘altruistic’ giving). Other giving behaviours are done with the prospect of improving one's own situation via reciprocity, reputation, or public good (labelled here as ‘strategic’ giving). These contexts differ in the source, certainty, and timing of rewards as well as the inferences made about others' mental states. We executed a combined statistical map and coordinate-based fMRI meta-analysis of decisions to give (36 studies, 1150 participants). Methods included a novel approach for accommodating variable signal dropout between studies in meta-analysis. Results reveal consistent, cross-paradigm neural correlates of each decision type, commonalities, and informative differences. Relative to being selfish, altruistic and strategic giving activate overlapping reward networks. However, strategic decisions showed greater activity in striatal regions than altruistic choices. Altruistic giving, more than strategic, activated subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC). Ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is consistently involved during generous decisions and processing across a posterior to anterior axis differentiates the altruistic/strategic context. Posterior vmPFC was preferentially recruited during altruistic decisions. Regions of the ‘social brain’ showed distinct patterns of activity between choice types, reflecting the different use of theory of mind in the two contexts. We provide the consistent neural correlates of decisions to give, and show that many will depend on the source of incentives.<br>