TY - JOUR

T1 - Examining the value of body gestures in social reward contexts

AU - Williams, Elin

AU - Bilbao-Broch, Laura

AU - Downing, Paul

AU - Cross, Emily

N1 - This work was supported by funding to ESC from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement number ERC-2015-StG-677270-SOCIAL ROBOTS), and Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol (Welsh research scholarship supporting EHW's doctoral training).

PY - 2020/11/15

Y1 - 2020/11/15

N2 - Brain regions associated with the processing of tangible rewards (such as money, food, or sex) are also involved in anticipating social rewards and avoiding social punishment. To date, studies investigating the neural underpin- nings of social reward have presented feedback via static or dynamic displays of faces to participants. However, research demonstrates that participants find another type of social stimulus, namely, biological motion, reward- ing as well, and exert effort to engage with this type of stimulus. Here we examine whether feedback presented via body gestures in the absence of facial cues also acts as a rewarding stimulus and recruits reward-related brain regions. To achieve this, we investigated the neural underpinnings of anticipating social reward and avoiding social disapproval presented via gestures alone, using a social incentive delay task. As predicted, the anticipation of social reward and avoidance of social disapproval engaged reward-related brain regions, including the nucleus accumbens, in a manner similar to previous studies’ reports of feedback presented via faces and money. This study provides the first evidence that human body motion alone engages brain regions associated with reward process- ing in a similar manner to other social (i.e. faces) and non-social (i.e. money) rewards. The findings advance our understanding of social motivation in human perception and behavior.

AB - Brain regions associated with the processing of tangible rewards (such as money, food, or sex) are also involved in anticipating social rewards and avoiding social punishment. To date, studies investigating the neural underpin- nings of social reward have presented feedback via static or dynamic displays of faces to participants. However, research demonstrates that participants find another type of social stimulus, namely, biological motion, reward- ing as well, and exert effort to engage with this type of stimulus. Here we examine whether feedback presented via body gestures in the absence of facial cues also acts as a rewarding stimulus and recruits reward-related brain regions. To achieve this, we investigated the neural underpinnings of anticipating social reward and avoiding social disapproval presented via gestures alone, using a social incentive delay task. As predicted, the anticipation of social reward and avoidance of social disapproval engaged reward-related brain regions, including the nucleus accumbens, in a manner similar to previous studies’ reports of feedback presented via faces and money. This study provides the first evidence that human body motion alone engages brain regions associated with reward process- ing in a similar manner to other social (i.e. faces) and non-social (i.e. money) rewards. The findings advance our understanding of social motivation in human perception and behavior.

U2 - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117276

DO - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117276

M3 - Article

VL - 222

JO - Neuroimage

JF - Neuroimage

SN - 1053-8119

M1 - 117276

ER -