Fairness is an essential ingredient in human society. Numerous studies have confirmed that people have fairness preference. With regard to the neural basis of fairness, researchers are focusing on the issue of neural mechanism that underlies fair behavior using neuroimaging techniques, and suggest a possibility to transfer the findings in the neural basis of fairness into clinical applications. In this paper, we first introduce a game theory-based paradigm for investigating fairness—the ultimatum game, and then review neuroimaging studies based on this game. In addition, we address the factors that may influence fairness and their neural mechanisms, namely, stake size, gain-loss contexts, framing effect, group opinion, social status, and emotion. We also summarize the studies that use the ultimatum game to investigate the clinical population, such as major depressive disorder, psychopathy, and antisocial adolescents. Meanwhile, we propose the followings: the neural mechanism of fairness should be examined from the perspective of brain networks, the influence of specific social contexts on fair behavior should be considered, the application of game theory paradigms in neuropsychiatric disorders should be strengthened, and the models of neural computation underlying fairness should be explored more deeply in future studies. Finally, we briefly introduce some Chinese researchers that are representative in this area.

fairness  /  ultimatum game  /  neural basis  /  fMRI