Are Risky Choices Actually Guided by a Compensatory Process? New Insights from fMRI
نویسندگان
چکیده
The dominant theories about risky decision-making assume that decision conflicts are solved by a compensatory process involving a trade-off of probability against payoff, but it is unclear whether these theories actually represent the events that occur when people make a risky decision. By contrasting a preferential choice with a judgment-based choice that required a compensatory process, we explored the mechanisms underlying risky decision-making. First, using parametric analyses, we identified the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dMPFC) as the specific region in charge of task-related conflict in risky decision-making tasks. We also showed that the dMPFC was activated less when judgment-based choices were being made, implying that the conflict experienced during a judgment-based choice was not as strong as the conflict that was experienced during the preferential choice. Our results provide neural evidence that preferential choice cannot be characterized solely as a compensatory process. Thus, questions were raised about whether existing compensatory theories could adequately describe individual risky decisions.
منابع مشابه
An fMRI Study of Risky Decision Making: The Role of Mental Preparation and Conflict
Introduction: The current study aimed to elucidate the role of preparatory cognitive control in decision making and its neural correlates using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). To this effect, by employing a series of new cognitive tasks, we assessed the role of preparatory cognitive control in monetary (risky) decision making. Methods: The participants had to decide between a...
متن کاملDoes the Ability to Make a New Business Need More Risky Choices during Decisions? Evidences for the Neurocognitive Basis of Entrepreneurship
متن کامل
One-reason decision making in risky choice? A closer look at the priority heuristic
Although many models for risky choices between gambles assume that information is somehow integrated, the recently proposed priority heuristic (PH) claims that choices are based on one piece of information only. That is, although the current reason for a choice according to the PH can vary, all other reasons are claimed to be ignored. However, the choices predicted by the PH and other pieces of...
متن کاملSex-Related Differences in Neural Activity during Risk Taking: An fMRI Study
This study explored sex effects on the process of risk-taking. We observed that the female participants (n = 10) showed stronger activation in the right insula and bilateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) than did the male participants (n = 12) while they were performing in the Risky-Gains task. The female participants also showed stronger activations in the precentral, postcentral, and paracentral...
متن کاملSeparate Neural Mechanisms Underlie Choices and Strategic Preferences in Risky Decision Making
Adaptive decision making in real-world contexts often relies on strategic simplifications of decision problems. Yet, the neural mechanisms that shape these strategies and their implementation remain largely unknown. Using an economic decision-making task, we dissociate brain regions that predict specific choices from those predicting an individual's preferred strategy. Choices that maximized ga...
متن کامل