PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
From deciding which meal to prepare for our guests to trading off the proenvironmental effects of climate protection measures against their economic costs, we often must consider the consequences of our actions for the well-being of others (welfare). Vexingly, the tastes and views of others can vary widely. To maximize welfare according to the utilitarian philosophical tradition, decision-makers facing conflicting preferences of others should choose the option that maximizes the sum of the subjective value (utility) of the entire group. This notion requires comparing the intensities of preferences across individuals. However, it remains unclear whether such comparisons are possible at all and (if they are possible) how they might be implemented in the brain. Here, we show that female and male participants can both learn the preferences of others by observing their choices and represent these preferences on a common scale to make utilitarian welfare decisions. On the neural level, multivariate support vector regressions revealed that a distributed activity pattern in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC), a brain region previously associated with reward processing, represented the preference strength of others. Strikingly, also the utilitarian welfare of others was represented in the VMPFC and relied on the same neural code as the estimated preferences of others. Together, our findings reveal that humans can behave as if they maximized utilitarian welfare using a specific utility representation and that the brain enables such choices by repurposing neural machinery processing the reward others receive.
摘要：
从决定为我们的客人准备哪顿饭，到权衡气候保护措施对环境的影响与经济成本，我们经常必须考虑我们的行为对他人福祉（福利）的后果。愤怒地，别人的品味和观点可能差别很大。根据功利主义的哲学传统，实现福利最大化，面对他人偏好冲突的决策者应选择使整个群体的主观价值（效用）之和最大化的选项。这个概念需要比较个人的偏好强度。然而,目前尚不清楚这种比较是否可能，以及（如果可能的话）如何在大脑中实现它们。这里,我们表明，女性和男性参与者都可以通过观察他们的选择来了解他人的偏好，并在共同的尺度上代表这些偏好，以做出功利主义的福利决策。在神经层面，多元支持向量回归表明，腹内侧前额叶皮质(VMPFC)的分布活动模式，先前与奖励处理相关的大脑区域，代表了别人的偏好力量。引人注目的是，VMPFC中也代表了其他人的功利主义福利，并且依赖于与其他人的估计偏好相同的神经代码。一起,我们的发现表明，人类可以表现得好像他们使用特定的效用表示来最大化功利福利，并且大脑通过重新利用神经机器处理他人获得的奖励来实现这种选择。重要性声明在许多情况下，政治家和平民努力使社会团体的福利最大化。如果组成员的首选项冲突，确定功利主义的福利最大化选择要求决策者可以在一个共同的尺度上比较冲突偏好的优势。然而，根本上缺乏对哪些大脑机制能够对相互冲突的效用进行这种比较的理解。这里,我们表明，参与奖励处理的大脑区域通过用共同的神经代码表示他人的偏好来计算福利比较。这提供了一种神经生物学机制，可以根据Husmean传统中的道德哲学的要求来计算功利主义的福利最大化。
