Abstract:

Trust encompasses one’s willingness to take certain risks based on the expectation of the other's behavior in order to obtain positive results in the future. Previous studies focused on specific brain regions, rather than the overall activity of large-scale brain networks in trust behavior. Trust behavior is associated with the activation of multiple regions of the brain that involves the cognitive neural network. In the Cognitive Neural Network Model, trust behavior is a representation of the interaction between the motivation system, affective system and cognition system, corresponding to the activation of the reward network, salience network, central-executive network and default-mode network. The model clarifies the correspondence between psychological systems and neural networks, and explains the psychological and neural mechanisms of trust from the perspective of neuroscience. In addition, the model also emphasizes the feedback mechanism of trust behavior, yielding a complete Cognitive Neural Network Model.

Key words: trust, cognitive neural network, motivation system, affective system, cognition system