Abstract
The decision to trust is the foundation for proper functioning in technology, work, and social environments. For this reason, it is of critical interest to understand and investigate the brain mechanisms involved in human trust for the neuroergonomics community. This chapter seeks to review the current understanding of the neurotransmitters and different neural correlates involved in the decision to trust compared to the decision not to trust. The neurotransmitters with these multifaceted behaviors are Oxytocin and Testosterone. While previously dubbed, the “love hormone” oxytocin is now believed to have an impact on the brain’s encoding of prediction error, and therefore its ability to modify preexisting beliefs. Testosterone, which was thought of as an inhibitor of trust, only shows decreases of trust only in men and a subgroup of women who displayed social naivety. The structural correlates involved in trust/distrust identified are the prefrontal cortex (PFC) (specifically the ventromedial PFC and orbitofrontal cortex), the insula, caudate, amygdala, and anterior paracingulate cortex (PCC). The caudate and anterior paracingulate cortex are currently thought to be involved with the positive decision to trust, whereas the prefrontal cortex, insula, and amygdala seem to have higher correlations with the negative decision to distrust. The academic literature used to determine these correlates methodology included lesion studies, intranasal administration, fMRI imaging of the trust game, and transcranial direct stimulation studies.
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Eskander, E., Sanders, N., Nam, C.S. (2020). Neural Correlates and Mechanisms of Trust. In: Nam, C. (eds) Neuroergonomics. Cognitive Science and Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34784-0_22
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