Abstract
This study investigated the neural processes underlying vicarious joy and their dependence on emotional closeness. Prior studies revealed that the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) is a target brain region for processing rewards for self, but the neural mechanisms of processing rewards for others are not yet well understood. A functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) paradigm was employed in young adults (N = 30), in combination with a self-report questionnaire on the perceived emotional closeness to the target. We examined the neural correlates of vicarious rewards when winning money for oneself or one of three other targets. To examine family relationships, two of the targets were the mother and father of the participants, and the third target was an unknown stranger. We found an increase in activation in the NAcc when playing for family members compared with a stranger. We further observed a difference in neural activation when winning for the father compared with the mother in an extended network involving the medial prefrontal cortex and precuneus, brain regions involved in mentalizing. These findings were not related to reports of emotional closeness. This new paradigm has considerable value for future research into the fundamental neural processes underlying empathy and vicarious joy.
Highlights
This study investigated the neural processes underlying vicarious joy and their dependence on emotional closeness
The results show that the ventral striatum, across the set of 25 studies, was selectively activated for personal reward and not for vicarious reward (Morelli, Sacchet, & Zaki, 2015)
Vicarious joy is an aspect of empathy that was expected to be influenced by the emotional closeness to the target of the reward (Braams, Peters, Peper, Güroǧlu, & Crone, 2014b; Mobbs et al, 2009; Royzman & Rozin, 2006)
Summary
This study investigated the neural processes underlying vicarious joy and their dependence on emotional closeness. We further observed a difference in neural activation when winning for the father compared with the mother in an extended network involving the medial prefrontal cortex and precuneus, brain regions involved in mentalizing. These findings were not related to reports of emotional closeness. Vicarious joy is the ability to feel happy about other people’s positive experiences (Batson et al, 1991) In that sense, it differs from compassion in its valence of the shared emotion, focusing on the positive rather than the negative experience of another person (Royzman & Rozin, 2006). Over the past 2 decades, robust evidence has pointed to the ventral striatum as a general-purpose, currency-independent, reward-processing unit responding to various rewards, including monetary rewards, food, and social interactions with others (Delgado, 2007; Knutson, Fong, Adams, Varner, & Hommer, 2001b; Sescousse, Caldú, Segura, & Dreher, 2013)
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