Common and distinct neural correlates of personal and vicarious reward: A quantitative meta-analysis.

ABSTRACT: Individuals experience reward not only when directly receiving positive outcomes (e.g., food or money), but also when observing others receive such outcomes. This latter phenomenon, known as vicarious reward, is a perennial topic of interest among psychologists and economists. More recently, neuroscientists have begun exploring the neuroanatomy underlying vicarious reward. Here we present a quantitative whole-brain meta-analysis of this emerging literature. We identified 25 functional neuroimaging studies that included contrasts between vicarious reward and a neutral control, and subjected these contrasts to an activation likelihood estimate (ALE) meta-analysis. This analysis revealed a consistent pattern of activation across studies, spanning structures typically associated with the compu

SUBMITTER: Morelli SA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4408229 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature