scholarly journals Endogenous fluctuations in the dopaminergic midbrain drive behavioral choice variability

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (37) ◽  
pp. 18732-18737 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Chew ◽  
Tobias U. Hauser ◽  
Marina Papoutsi ◽  
Joerg Magerkurth ◽  
Raymond J. Dolan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Risky Choice ◽  
Blood Oxygenation ◽  
Risky Decision Making ◽  
Risky Decision ◽  
Physiological Basis ◽  
Endogenous Fluctuations ◽  
Increased Risk

Human behavior is surprisingly variable, even when facing the same problem under identical circumstances. A prominent example is risky decision making. Economic theories struggle to explain why humans are so inconsistent. Resting-state studies suggest that ongoing endogenous fluctuations in brain activity can influence low-level perceptual and motor processes, but it remains unknown whether endogenous fluctuations also influence high-level cognitive processes including decision making. Here, using real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging, we tested whether risky decision making is influenced by endogenous fluctuations in blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) activity in the dopaminergic midbrain, encompassing ventral tegmental area and substantia nigra. We show that low prestimulus brain activity leads to increased risky choice in humans. Using computational modeling, we show that increased risk taking is explained by enhanced phasic responses to offers in a decision network. Our findings demonstrate that endogenous brain activity provides a physiological basis for variability in complex human behavior.

scholarly journals Risk-based Decision Making in Rats: Modulation by Sex and Amphetamine

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dannia Islas-Preciado ◽  
Steven R. Wainwright ◽  
Julia Sniegocki ◽  
Stephane E. Lieblich ◽  
Shunya Yagi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Sex Differences ◽  
Gonadal Hormones ◽  
Risky Choice ◽  
Female Rats ◽  
Male Rats ◽  
Risky Decision Making ◽  
Risky Decision ◽  
17Β Estradiol ◽  
Males And Females

AbstractDecision-making is a complex process essential to daily adaptation in many species. Risk is an inherent aspect of decision-making and it is influenced by gonadal hormones. Testosterone and 17β-estradiol may modulate decision making and impact the mesocorticolimbic dopamine pathway. Here, we explored sex differences, the effect of gonadal hormones and the dopamine agonist amphetamine on risk-based decision making. Intact or gonadectomised (GDX) male and female rats underwent to a probabilistic discounting task. High and low doses of testosterone propionate (1.0 or 0.2 mg) and 17β-estradiol benzoate (0.3 μg) were administered to assess acute effects on risk-based decision making. After 3-days of washout period, intact and GDX rats received high or low (0.5 or 0.125 mg/kg) doses of amphetamine and re-tested in the probabilistic discounting task. Under baseline conditions, males made more risky choices during probability discounting compared to female rats, particularly in the lower probability blocks, but GDX did not influence risky choice. The high, but not the low dose, of testosterone modestly reduced risky decision making in GDX male rats. Conversely, 17β-estradiol had no significant effect on risky choice regardless of GDX status in either sex. Lastly, a higher dose of amphetamine increased risky decision making in both intact males and females, but had no effect in GDX rats. These findings demonstrated sex differences in risk-based decision making, with males showing a stronger bias towards larger, uncertain rewards. GDX status influenced the effects of amphetamine, suggesting different dopaminergic regulation in risk-based choices among males and females.

scholarly journals Sensitivity to gains during risky decision-making differentiates chronic cocaine users from stimulant-naïve controls

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Kluwe-Schiavon ◽  
A. Kexel ◽  
G. Manenti ◽  
D.M. Cole ◽  
M.R. Baumgartner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Neuropsychological Test ◽  
Risky Decision Making ◽  
Risky Decision ◽  
Cocaine Use ◽  
Risk Seeking ◽  
Chronic Cocaine ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Cocaine Users ◽  
The Individual

AbstractBackgroundAlthough chronic cocaine use has been frequently associated with decision-making impairments that are supposed to contribute to the development and maintenance of cocaine addiction, it has remained unclear how risk-seeking behaviours observed in chronic cocaine users (CU) come about. Here we therefore test whether risky decision-making observed in CU is driven by alterations in individual sensitivity to the available information (gain, loss, and risk).MethodA sample of 96 participants (56 CU and 40 controls) performed the no-feedback (“cold”) version of the Columbia Card Task. Structured psychiatric interviews and a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery were additionally conducted. Current and recent substance use was objectively assessed by toxicological urine and hair analysis.ResultsCompared to controls, CU showed increased risk-seeking in unfavourable decision scenarios in which the risk was high and the returns were low, and a tendency for increased risk aversion in favourable decision scenarios. These differences arose from the fact that CU were less sensitive to gain, but similarly sensitive to loss and risk information in comparison to controls. Further analysis revealed that individual differences in sensitivity to loss and risk were related to cognitive performance and impulsivity.ConclusionThe reduced sensitivity to gain information in people with CU may contribute to their propensity for making risky decisions. While these alterations in the sensitivity to gain might be directly related to cocaine use per se, the individual psychopathological profile of CU might moderate their sensitivity to risk and loss impulsivity.

Parental rearing behavior prospectively predicts adolescents’ risky decision-making and feedback-related electrical brain activity

2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 409-427 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anja S. Euser ◽  
Brittany E. Evans ◽  
Kirstin Greaves-Lord ◽  
Anja C. Huizink ◽  
Ingmar H.A. Franken
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Risky Decision Making ◽  
Risky Decision ◽  
Electrical Brain Activity ◽  
Parental Rearing

scholarly journals No differences between autistic and non-autistic adults in social influence on risky decision-making

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lydia Hickman ◽  
Connor Keating ◽  
Jennifer Cook ◽  
Elliot Andrew Ludvig
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Influence ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Risky Choice ◽  
Social Cues ◽  
Risky Decision Making ◽  
Risky Decision ◽  
The Social ◽  
Comparable Performance ◽  
Autistic Adults

Everyday risky decisions are susceptible to influence from a variety of sources, including the social context in which decisions take place. In the general population, people update their risk preferences based on knowledge of choices made by previous participants. In this study, we examined the influence of social information on the risky decision-making of autistic adults, a group in which differences in social processing have been observed. Autistic and non-autistic adults completed a risky decision-making task in the presence of both social and non-social information, either choosing for themselves or someone else on each trial. Notably, the social information comprised tokens that represented preferences of previous participants and was thus devoid of overt social cues such as faces or gestures. The non-social condition comprised a previously validated method where tokens represented “preferences” generated by weighted roulette wheels. Participants significantly shifted their choices when the influence (social or non-social) suggested a less risky choice. There were no group differences in risky decision-making when deciding for oneself compared to others. Interestingly, no differences in the effects of social and non-social influence were found between autistic and non-autistic adults. Considering previous evidence of social influence differences when using overtly social cues, we suggest that the removal of social cues in our paradigm led to comparable performance between the autistic and non-autistic groups. The current study paves the way for future studies investigating a confounding effect of social cues, which will lead to important insight for theories of social influence in autism.

scholarly journals The continuous and changing impact of affect on risky decision-making

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erkin Asutay ◽  
Daniel Västfjäll
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Temporal Integration ◽  
Risky Choice ◽  
Prediction Errors ◽  
Risky Decision Making ◽  
Affective Experience ◽  
Risky Decision ◽  
Dynamic Representation ◽  
Subjective Value ◽  
Behavioral Evidence

Abstract Affective experience has an important role in decision-making with recent theories suggesting a modulatory role of affect in ongoing subjective value computations. However, it is unclear how varying expectations and uncertainty dynamically influence affective experience and how dynamic representation of affect modulates risky choices. Using hierarchical Bayesian modeling on data from a risky choice task (N = 101), we find that the temporal integration of recently encountered choice parameters (expected value, uncertainty, and prediction errors) shapes affective experience and impacts subsequent choice behavior. Specifically, experienced arousal prior to choice was associated with increased loss aversion, risk aversion, and choice consistency. Taken together, these findings provide clear behavioral evidence for continuous affective modulation of subjective value computations during risky decision-making.

scholarly journals The Wisdom of Model Crowds

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisheng He ◽  
Pantelis P. Analytis ◽  
Sudeep Bhatia
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Choice Behavior ◽  
Predictive Performance ◽  
Choice Models ◽  
Risky Choice ◽  
Risky Decision Making ◽  
Risky Decision ◽  
Performance Bound ◽  
Individual Level

A wide body of empirical research has revealed the descriptive shortcomings of expected value and expected utility models of risky decision making. In response, numerous models have been advanced to predict and explain people’s choices between gambles. Although some of these models have had a great impact in the behavioral, social and management sciences, there is little consensus about which model offers the best account of choice behavior. In this paper, we conduct a large-scale comparison of 58 prominent models of risky choice, using 19 existing behavioral datasets involving more than 800 participants. This allows us to comprehensively evaluate models in terms of individual-level predictive performance across a range of different choice settings. We also identify the psychological mechanisms that lead to superior predictive performance and the properties of choice stimuli that favor certain types of models over others. Second, drawing on research on the wisdom of crowds, we argue that each of the existing models can be seen as an expert that provides unique forecasts in choice predictions. Consistent with this claim, we find that crowds of risky choice models perform better than individual models and thus provide a performance bound for assessing the historical accumulation of knowledge in our field. Our results suggest that each model captures unique aspects of the decision process, and that existing risky choice models offer complementary rather than competing accounts of behavior. We discuss the implications of our results on theories of risky decision making and the quantitative modeling of choice behavior.

The Wisdom of Model Crowds

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisheng He ◽  
Pantelis P. Analytis ◽  
Sudeep Bhatia
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Choice Behavior ◽  
Predictive Performance ◽  
Choice Models ◽  
Risky Choice ◽  
Risky Decision Making ◽  
Risky Decision ◽  
Performance Bound ◽  
Individual Level

A wide body of empirical research has revealed the descriptive shortcomings of expected value and expected utility models of risky decision making. In response, numerous models have been advanced to predict and explain people’s choices between gambles. Although some of these models have had a great impact in the behavioral, social, and management sciences, there is little consensus about which model offers the best account of choice behavior. In this paper, we conduct a large-scale comparison of 58 prominent models of risky choice, using 19 existing behavioral data sets involving more than 800 participants. This allows us to comprehensively evaluate models in terms of individual-level predictive performance across a range of different choice settings. We also identify the psychological mechanisms that lead to superior predictive performance and the properties of choice stimuli that favor certain types of models over others. Moreover, drawing on research on the wisdom of crowds, we argue that each of the existing models can be seen as an expert that provides unique forecasts in choice predictions. Consistent with this claim, we find that crowds of risky choice models perform better than individual models and thus provide a performance bound for assessing the historical accumulation of knowledge in our field. Our results suggest that each model captures unique aspects of the decision process and that existing risky choice models offer complementary rather than competing accounts of behavior. We discuss the implications of our results on theories of risky decision making and the quantitative modeling of choice behavior. This paper was accepted by Yuval Rottenstreich, behavioral economics and decision analysis.

Agreeableness modulates group member risky decision-making behavior and brain activity

NeuroImage ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 202 ◽  
pp. 116100
Author(s):  
Fang Wang ◽  
Xin Wang ◽  
Fenghua Wang ◽  
Li Gao ◽  
Hengyi Rao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Risky Decision Making ◽  
Risky Decision ◽  
Decision Making Behavior ◽  
Group Member

scholarly journals Risky decision-making following prefrontal D1 receptor manipulation

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 432-443
Author(s):  
Dominik K. E. Beyer ◽  
Lisa Horn ◽  
Nadine Klinker ◽  
Nadja Freund
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Iowa Gambling Task ◽  
D1 Receptor ◽  
Behavioral Changes ◽  
Risky Decision Making ◽  
Risky Decision ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
The Right

Abstract The prefrontal dopamine D1 receptor (D1R) is involved in cognitive processes. Viral overexpression of this receptor in rats further increases the reward-related behaviors and even its termination induces anhedonia and helplessness. In this study, we investigated the risky decision-making during D1R overexpression and its termination. Rats conducted the rodent version of the Iowa gambling task daily. In addition, the methyl CpG–binding protein-2 (MeCP2), one regulator connecting the dopaminergic system, cognitive processes, and mood-related behavior, was investigated after completion of the behavioral tasks. D1R overexpressing subjects exhibited maladaptive risky decision-making and risky decisions returned to control levels following termination of D1R overexpression; however, after termination, animals earned less reward compared to control subjects. In this phase, MeCP2-positive cells were elevated in the right amygdala. Our results extend the previously reported behavioral changes in the D1R-manipulated animal model to increased risk-taking and revealed differential MeCP2 expression adding further evidence for a bipolar disorder-like phenotype of this model.

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