The neural correlates of value hierarchies: a prospective typology based on personal value profiles of emerging adults

Jia-Qiong Xie; Yun Tian; Jia Hu; Ming-Ze Yin; Ya-Dong Sun; Yan-Jie Shan; Ke Chen; Gang Feng; Jiang Qiu

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1224911

The neural correlates of value hierarchies: a prospective typology based on personal value profiles of emerging adults

Front Psychol. 2023 Dec 18:14:1224911. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1224911. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Jia-Qiong Xie¹, Yun Tian^{2

3}, Jia Hu⁴, Ming-Ze Yin^{5

6}, Ya-Dong Sun¹, Yan-Jie Shan¹, Ke Chen¹, Gang Feng⁷, Jiang Qiu^{8

9}

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Social Sciences, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China.
² Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (SWU), Ministry of Education, Chongqing, China.
³ Sleep and NeuroImaging Center, Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
⁴ Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China.
⁵ Faculty of Education, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
⁶ Office of Social Sciences, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China.
⁷ School of Marxism, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
⁸ Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
⁹ Southwest University Branch, Collaborative Innovation Center of Assessment Toward Basic Education Quality at Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.

Abstract

Introduction: Value hierarchies, as motivational goals anchored in the self-schema, may be correlated with spontaneous activity in the resting brain, especially those involving self-relevance. This study aims to investigate the neural correlates of value hierarchies from the perspective of typology.

Methods: A total of 610 Chinese college students (30.31% women), aged 18 to 23, completed the personal values questionnaire and underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Results: The latent profile analysis revealed three personal value profiles: traditional social orientation, modernized orientation, and undifferentiated orientation. Neuroimaging results revealed that individuals with modernized orientation prioritized openness to change value, and this personal-focus is related to the higher low-frequency amplitude of the posterior insula; individuals with traditional social orientation prioritized self-transcendence and conservation values, and this social-focus is related to the stronger functional connectivity of the middle insula with the inferior temporal gyrus, temporal gyrus, posterior occipital cortex, and basal ganglia, as well as weaker functional connections within the right middle insula.

Discussion: Taken together, these findings potentially indicate the intra-generational differentiation of contemporary Chinese emerging adults' value hierarchies. At the neural level, these are correlated with brain activities involved in processing self- and other-relevance.

Keywords: emerging adults; functional magnetic resonance imaging; interindividual differences; latent profile analysis; value hierarchies.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2022 CDJSKZX07), the Graduate Scientific Research and Innovation Foundation of Chongqing (CYB23007), the Project of Chongqing Municipal Programs for Social Science (2021ZTZD10), the Project of the Chongqing Municipal Committee of Science and Technology (cstc2021jsyj-zzysbAX0076), the College Ideological and Political Work Cultivation Project of the Ministry of Education (JSZS2021-2), and the Major Research Plan of National Social Science Foundation of China (21&ZD312).