MINI REVIEW article
Front. Hum. Neurosci.
Sec. Brain Health and Clinical Neuroscience
How helping others helps us: neural mechanisms linking prosocial behavior to psychological and physical well-being
1. Sungkyunkwan University, Jongno-gu, Republic of Korea
2. Institute for Basic Science Center for Neuroscience Imaging Research, Suwon-si, Republic of Korea
3. Pusan National University, Busan, Republic of Korea
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Abstract
Prosocial behavior – voluntary actions intended to benefit others – not only holds moral and social value but also promotes psychological and physical well-being through complex neural mechanisms. This mini-review summarizes current evidence on the health benefits of helping others, including reductions in depression, anxiety, and loneliness, as well as enhancements in positive affect, life satisfaction, and physiological health markers. Then, we provide an overview of the neural systems that support prosociality, highlighting key regions involved in reward processing, empathy, and mentalizing, and how their integration supports flexible, context-sensitive helping behavior. Furthermore, we discuss possible neural pathways linking prosocial actions to stress buffering, mood enhancement, and social connectedness, forming self-reinforcing cycles that sustain well-being. We also discuss individual difference factors – including personality traits and early life experiences – that may act to modulate these neural mechanisms and impact prosocial engagement. Understanding how helping others benefits the helper holds promise for advancing population health and fostering resilience across diverse contexts.
Summary
Keywords
fMRI, Health, Prosocial Behavior, social brain, Well-being
Received
16 August 2025
Accepted
17 February 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Kim and Sul. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Sunhae Sul
Disclaimer
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.