Neural implementation of computational mechanisms underlying the continuous trade-off between cooperation and competition

This research investigates the continuous trade-off between cooperation and competition in social interactions. The study introduces the "Space Dilemma," a new economic game where players dynamically adjust their cooperativeness. Computational modeling and fMRI were used to analyze how social contexts bias choices and how inferences about others' intentions modulate behavior. Results reveal that brain regions associated with social cognition (temporo-parietal junction, dorso-medial prefrontal cortex, and anterior cingulate gyrus) encode social prediction errors and context-dependent signals, correlating with shifts along the cooperation-competition continuum. This provides a comprehensive account of the computational and neural mechanisms underlying this continuous trade-off.

M. A. Pisauro, E. F. Fouragnan, D. H. Arabadzhiyska, M. A. J. Apps, M. G. Philiastides