D2/3 Agonist during Learning Potentiates Cued Risky Choice.

Impulse control and/or gambling disorders can be triggered by dopamine agonist therapies used to treat Parkinson's disease, but the cognitive and neurobiological mechanisms underlying these adverse effects are unknown. Recent data show that adding win-paired sound and light cues to the rat gambling task (rGT) potentiates risky decision-making and impulsivity via the dopamine system, and that changing dopaminergic tone has a greater influence on behavior while subjects are learning task contingencies. Dopamine agonist therapy may therefore be potentiating risk-taking by amplifying the behavioral impact of gambling-related cues on novel behavior. Here, we show that ropinirole treatment in male rats transiently increased motor impulsivity but robustly and progressively increased choice of the high-risk/high-reward options when administered during acquisition of the cued but not uncued rGT. Early in training, ropinirole increased win-stay behavior after large unlikely wins on the cued rGT, indicative of enhanced model-free learning, which mediated the drug's effect on later risk preference. Ex vivo cFos imaging showed that both chronic ropinirole and the addition of win-paired cues suppressed the activity of dopaminergic midbrain neurons. The ratio of midbrain:prefrontal cFos+ neurons was lower in animals with suboptimal choice patterns and tended to predict risk preference across all rats. Network analyses further suggested that ropinirole induced decoupling of the dopaminergic cells of the VTA and nucleus accumbens but only when win-paired cues were present. Frontostriatal activity uninformed by the endogenous dopaminergic teaching signal therefore appeared to perpetuate risky choice, and ropinirole exaggerated this disconnect in synergy with reward-paired cues.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT D2/3 receptor agonists, used to treat Parkinson's disease, can cause gambling disorder through an unknown mechanism. Ropinirole increased risky decision-making in rats, but only when wins were paired with casino-inspired sounds and lights. This was mediated by increased win-stay behavior after large unlikely wins early in learning, indicating enhanced model-free learning. cFos imaging showed that ropinirole suppressed activity of midbrain dopamine neurons, an effect that was mimicked by the addition of win-paired cues. The degree of risky choice rats exhibited was uniquely predicted by the ratio of midbrain dopamine:PFC activity. Depriving the PFC of the endogenous dopaminergic teaching signal may therefore drive risky decision-making on-task, and ropinirole acts synergistically with win-paired cues to amplify this.

Concurrent behavioral modeling and multimodal neuroimaging reveals how feedback affects the performance of decision making in internet gaming disorder.

Internet gaming disorder (IGD) prompts inquiry into how feedback from prior gaming rounds influences subsequent risk-taking behavior and potential neural mechanisms. Forty-two participants, including 15 with IGD and 27 health controls (HCs), underwent a sequential risk-taking task. Hierarchy Bayesian modeling was adopted to measure risky propensity, behavioral consistence, and affection by emotion ratings from last trial. Concurrent electroencephalogram and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (EEG-fNIRS) recordings were performed to demonstrate when, where and how the previous-round feedback affects the decision making to the next round. We discovered that the IGD illustrated heightened risk-taking propensity as compared to the HCs, indicating by the computational modeling (p = 0.028). EEG results also showed significant time window differences in univariate and multivariate pattern analysis between the IGD and HCs after the loss of the game. Further, reduced brain activation in the prefrontal cortex during the task was detected in IGD as compared to that of the control group. The findings underscore the importance of understanding the aberrant decision-making processes in IGD and suggest potential implications for future interventions and treatments aimed at addressing this behavioral addiction.

Cognitive Correlates of Risky Decision-Making in Individuals with and without ADHD: A Meta-analysis.

This meta-analytic study aims to investigate the cognitive correlates of risky decision-making in individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and typically developing (TD) individuals. A systematic analysis of existing literature was conducted, encompassing 38 studies (496 ADHD and 1493 TD). Findings revealed a consistent propensity for riskier decision-making in individuals with ADHD, supported by significant correlations with attention, cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control, time perception, and working memory. The study underscores the relevance of these cognitive functions in shaping decision-making tendencies, with nuanced patterns observed within the ADHD and TD subgroups. Individuals with ADHD often demonstrate altered patterns of correlation, reflecting the specific cognitive challenges characteristic of the disorder.

Nothing to lose? Neural correlates of decision, anticipation, and feedback in the balloon analog risk task.

Understanding the subprocesses of risky decision making is a prerequisite for understanding (dys-)functional decisions. For the present fMRI study, we designed a novel variant of the balloon-analog-risk task (BART) that measures three phases: decision making, reward anticipation, and feedback processing. Twenty-nine healthy young adults completed the BART. We analyzed neural activity and functional connectivity. Parametric modulation allowed assessing changes in brain functioning depending on the riskiness of the decision. Our results confirm involvement of nucleus accumbens, insula, anterior cingulate cortex, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in all subprocesses of risky decision-making. In addition, subprocesses were differentiated by the strength of activation in these regions, as well as by changes in activity and nucleus accumbens-connectivity by the riskiness of the decision. The presented fMRI-BART variant allows distinguishing activity and connectivity during the subprocesses of risky decision making and shows how activation and connectivity patterns relate to the riskiness of the decision. Hence, it is a useful tool for unraveling impairments in subprocesses of risky decision making in people with high risk behavior.

Sleep deprivation attenuates neural responses to outcomes from risky decision-making.

Sleep loss impacts a broad range of brain and cognitive functions. However, how sleep deprivation affects risky decision-making remains inconclusive. This study used functional MRI to examine the impact of one night of total sleep deprivation (TSD) on risky decision-making behavior and the underlying brain responses in healthy adults. In this study, we analyzed data from N = 56 participants in a strictly controlled 5-day and 4-night in-laboratory study using a modified Balloon Analogue Risk Task. Participants completed two scan sessions in counter-balanced order, including one scan during rested wakefulness (RW) and another scan after one night of TSD. Results showed no differences in participants' risk-taking propensity and risk-induced activation between RW and TSD. However, participants showed significantly reduced neural activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and bilateral insula for loss outcomes, and in bilateral putamen for win outcomes during TSD compared with RW. Moreover, risk-induced activation in the insula negatively correlated with participants' risk-taking propensity during RW, while no such correlations were observed after TSD. These findings suggest that sleep loss may impact risky decision-making by attenuating neural responses to decision outcomes and impairing brain-behavior associations.

Being bold wisely: neural substrates underlying ability to exploit risk.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. To succeed one must take risks, and more importantly, take risks wisely, which depends on individual ability to exploit risk. Here, we explore neural substrates for the ability to exploit risk by using voxel-based morphometry (VBM). First, we carried out structural magnetic resonance imaging and measured individual risk-taking propensity and corresponding earnings by administrating the Balloon Analogue Risk Task in 1,389 participants. Behavior analysis revealed an inverted-U-shaped relation between risk-taking propensity and earnings, that earnings initially increased and then decreased as risk-taking propensity increased. Then individual ability to exploit risk was estimated by calculating the difference between individual actual earnings and the average earnings of the group at the same level of risk-taking propensity. VBM analysis revealed that individual ability to exploit risk was positively correlated with the gray matter volumes of three clusters located in the right orbitofrontal cortex, left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), and right dlPFC, respectively. These findings highlight the neural substrates for the ability to exploit risk and implicate that precise valuation, adaptive learning, and self-control may underpin the ability to exploit risk, which expand our understanding of the ability to exploit risk and its neural substrates.

Reining in regret: emotion regulation modulates regret in decision making.

Whereas the influence of regret on decision making is well-established, it remains unclear whether emotion regulation may modulate both the affective experience of regret and its influence on decisions. To examine this question, participants made decisions about options involving uncertainty using two different, instructed emotion regulation strategies. In one case, they were instructed to treat each choice individually, while in the other they were encouraged to treat a series of decisions as a portfolio. The present experiment demonstrates that approaching a series of decisions as a portfolio led to less extreme affective reactions to outcomes and lowered physiological arousal levels compared to focusing on each decision in isolation. However, the different emotion regulation strategies did not alter the influence of anticipatory regret on choices. The results indicate that these different emotion regulation strategies can be used to alter the experience of regret. These findings support a role for cognitive strategies in mitigating the affective experience of regret and suggest a means to encourage consumer welfare.

Associations of Impulsivity and Risky Decision-Making with E-Cigarette-Related Outcomes Among Adolescents with Congenital Heart Disease: Variable- and Person-Oriented Approaches.

Adolescents with congenital heart disease (CHD) have elevated risk for acquired cardiovascular complications, increasing their vulnerability to e-cigarette-related health harms. Impulsivity and risky decision-making have been associated with adolescent substance use, but the relationships between these factors and e-cigarette-related outcomes among cardiovascular at-risk adolescents with CHD are unknown. This cross-sectional study aimed to (a) determine the associations of impulsivity and risky decision-making with e-cigarette-related outcomes (i.e. susceptibility, ever use, perceptions of harm and addictiveness) via variable-oriented analysis (logistic regression), (b) identify groups of adolescents with similar profiles of impulsivity and risky decision-making via exploratory person-oriented analysis (latent profile analysis; LPA), and (c) examine differences on e-cigarette-related outcomes between profile groups. Adolescents aged 12 to 18 years with CHD (N = 98) completed a survey assessing impulsivity facets (Short UPPS-P) and e-cigarette-related outcomes and were administered a risky decision-making task (Iowa Gambling Task, Version 2; IGT2). In variable-oriented analyses, impulsivity facets (negative urgency, positive urgency, lack of premeditation) but not risky decision-making were associated with e-cigarette susceptibility and ever use. The exploratory LPA identified two groups with similar patterns of responding on the Short UPPS-P and IGT2 labeled "Low Impulsivity" and "High Impulsivity," which were primarily characterized by significant differences in negative and positive urgency. Adolescents in the High Impulsivity group had increased odds of e-cigarette susceptibility but not ever use compared to the Low Impulsivity group. This work indicates that strategies to prevent e-cigarette use among adolescents with CHD may be enhanced by addressing impulsivity, particularly negative and positive urgency.

Neural Mechanisms Mediating Sex Differences in Motivation for Reward: Cognitive Bias, Food, Gambling, and Drugs of Abuse.

Sex differences in motivation for food rewards, gambling, and drugs of abuse are modulated by multiple factors, including sensory stimuli, gonadal hormones, and cognitive bias. Cues, drugs of abuse, and a high-fat diet can significantly impact neural signaling in the reward system and functioning of neural systems that regulate executive functions differentially in males and females. Additionally, sex differences in risky decision-making, cognitive bias, and motivation for food and drugs of abuse are mediated by gonadal hormones in both sexes. As neuroscientists analyze data from both sexes, it is becoming apparent that these differences are not simply mediated by hormones in females, but involve sex differences in the specific neural responses to stimuli, including both external stimuli and internal hormonal signals. Understanding sex differences in the mechanisms underlying reward-seeking behaviors and the development of substance use disorders will help uncover potential therapies and treatments that will benefit both men and women. Based on these observations, it is essential that females are included in neuroscience research.

Conceptual representations of uncertainty predict risky decision-making.

Decisions made under uncertainty often are considered according to their perceived subjective value. We move beyond this traditional framework to explore the hypothesis that conceptual representations of uncertainty influence risky choice. Results reveal that uncertainty concepts are represented along a dimension that jointly captures probabilistic and valenced features of the conceptual space. These uncertainty representations predict the degree to which an individual engages in risky decision-making. Moreover, we find that most individuals have two largely distinct representations: one for uncertainty and another for certainty. In contrast, a minority of individuals exhibit substantial overlap between their representations of uncertainty and certainty. Together, these findings reveal the relationship between the conceptualization of uncertainty and risky decisions.

Explaining the description-experience gap in risky decision-making: learning and memory retention during experience as causal mechanisms.

When making decisions based on probabilistic outcomes, people guide their behavior using knowledge gathered through both indirect descriptions and direct experience. Paradoxically, how people obtain information significantly impacts apparent preferences. A ubiquitous example is the description-experience gap: individuals seemingly overweight low probability events when probabilities are described yet underweight them when probabilities must be experienced firsthand. A leading explanation for this fundamental gap in decision-making is that probabilities are weighted differently when learned through description relative to experience, yet a formal theoretical account of the mechanism responsible for such weighting differences remains elusive. We demonstrate how various learning and memory retention models incorporating neuroscientifically motivated learning mechanisms can explain why probability weighting and valuation parameters often are found to vary across description and experience. In a simulation study, we show how learning through experience can lead to systematically biased estimates of probability weighting when using a traditional cumulative prospect theory model. We then use hierarchical Bayesian modeling and Bayesian model comparison to show how various learning and memory retention models capture participants' behavior over and above changes in outcome valuation and probability weighting, accounting for description and experience-based decisions in a within-subject experiment. We conclude with a discussion of how substantive models of psychological processes can lead to insights that heuristic statistical models fail to capture.

Stronger coupling of emotional instability with reward processing in borderline personality disorder is predicted by schema modes.

BACKGROUND: Mood instability and risk-taking are hallmarks of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Schema modes are combinations of self-reflective evaluations, negative emotional states, and destructive coping strategies common in BPD. When activated, they can push patients with BPD into emotional turmoil and a dissociative state of mind. Our knowledge of the underlying neurocognitive mechanisms driving these changes is incomplete. We hypothesized that in patients with BPD, affective instability is more influenced by reward expectation, outcomes, and reward prediction errors (RPEs) during risky decision-making than in healthy controls. Additionally, we expected that these alterations would be related to schema modes. METHODS: Thirty-two patients with BPD and thirty-one healthy controls were recruited. We used an established behavioral paradigm to measure mood fluctuations during risky decision-making. The impact of expectations and RPEs on momentary mood was quantified by a computational model, and its parameters were estimated with hierarchical Bayesian analysis. Model parameters were compared using High-Density Intervals. RESULTS: We found that model parameters capturing the influence of RPE and Certain Rewards on mood were significantly higher in patients with BPD than in controls. These model parameters correlated significantly with schema modes, but not with depression severity. CONCLUSIONS: BPD is coupled with altered associations between mood fluctuation and reward processing under uncertainty. Our findings seem to be BPD-specific, as they stand in contrast with the correlates of depressive symptoms. Future studies should establish the clinical utility of these alterations, such as predicting or assessing therapeutic response in BPD.

Dissociating value-based neurocomputation from subsequent selection-related activations in human decision-making.

Human decision-making requires the brain to fulfill neural computation of benefit and risk and therewith a selection between options. It remains unclear how value-based neural computation and subsequent brain activity evolve to achieve a final decision and which process is modulated by irrational factors. We adopted a sequential risk-taking task that asked participants to successively decide whether to open a box with potential reward/punishment in an eight-box trial, or not to open. With time-resolved multivariate pattern analyses, we decoded electroencephalography and magnetoencephalography responses to two successive low- and high-risk boxes before open-box action. Referencing the specificity of decoding-accuracy peak to a first-stage processing completion, we set it as the demarcation and dissociated the neural time course of decision-making into valuation and selection stages. The behavioral hierarchical drift diffusion modeling confirmed different information processing in two stages, that is, the valuation stage was related to the drift rate of evidence accumulation, while the selection stage was related to the nondecision time spent in response-producing. We further observed that medial orbitofrontal cortex participated in the valuation stage, while superior frontal gyrus engaged in the selection stage of irrational open-box decisions. Afterward, we revealed that irrational factors influenced decision-making through the selection stage rather than the valuation stage.

Invincible honor: masculine honor, perceived invulnerability, and risky decision-making.

Masculine honor ideology is characterized by the cultivation, maintenance, and defense of reputations for toughness, bravery, and strength. The link between masculine honor endorsement and increased risk-taking - especially an increased tolerance for and even expectation of violence - is well-established in the literature. However, little empirical research has examined what factors might explain this relationship. This study investigates perceived invulnerability, the cognitive bias that one is immune to threats, as a mediator in the relationship between masculine honor ideology and risky decision-making. Results show moderate support for this relationship's existence. These findings elaborate on previous research between honor and specific risky decisions by demonstrating honor to instill cognitive biases in its adherents that make them more tolerant of risk, and thus more likely to decide to engage in risky behaviors. The implications of these findings for interpreting previous research, guiding future research, and pursuing specific educational and policy-based efforts are discussed.

A Neurocomputational Model for Intrinsic Reward.

Standard economic indicators provide an incomplete picture of what we value both as individuals and as a society. Furthermore, canonical macroeconomic measures, such as GDP, do not account for non-market activities (e.g., cooking, childcare) that nevertheless impact well-being. Here, we introduce a computational tool that measures the affective value of experiences (e.g., playing a musical instrument without errors). We go on to validate this tool with neural data, using fMRI to measure neural activity in male and female human subjects performing a reinforcement learning task that incorporated periodic ratings of subjective affective state. Learning performance determined level of payment (i.e., extrinsic reward). Crucially, the task also incorporated a skilled performance component (i.e., intrinsic reward) which did not influence payment. Both extrinsic and intrinsic rewards influenced affective dynamics, and their relative influence could be captured in our computational model. Individuals for whom intrinsic rewards had a greater influence on affective state than extrinsic rewards had greater ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) activity for intrinsic than extrinsic rewards. Thus, we show that computational modeling of affective dynamics can index the subjective value of intrinsic relative to extrinsic rewards, a "computational hedonometer" that reflects both behavior and neural activity that quantifies the affective value of experience.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Traditional economic indicators are increasingly recognized to provide an incomplete picture of what we value as a society. Standard economic approaches struggle to accurately assign values to non-market activities that nevertheless may be intrinsically rewarding, prompting a need for new tools to measure what really matters to individuals. Using a combination of neuroimaging and computational modeling, we show that despite their lack of instrumental value, intrinsic rewards influence subjective affective state and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) activity. The relative degree to which extrinsic and intrinsic rewards influence affective state is predictive of their relative impacts on neural activity, confirming the utility of our approach for measuring the affective value of experiences and other non-market activities in individuals.

Dopamine increases risky choice while D2 blockade shortens decision time.

Dopamine is crucially involved in decision-making and overstimulation within dopaminergic pathways can lead to impulsive behaviour, including a desire to take risks and reduced deliberation before acting. These behavioural changes are side effects of treatment with dopaminergic drugs in Parkinson disease, but their likelihood of occurrence is difficult to predict and may be influenced by the individual's baseline endogenous dopamine state, and indeed correlate with sensation-seeking personality traits. We here collected data on a standard gambling task in healthy volunteers given either placebo, 2.5 mg of the dopamine antagonist haloperidol or 100/25 mg of the dopamine precursor levodopa in a within-subject design. We found an increase in risky choices on levodopa. Choices were, however, made faster on haloperidol with no effect of levodopa on deliberation time. Shortened deliberation times on haloperidol occurred in low sensation-seekers only, suggesting a correlation between sensation-seeking personality trait and baseline dopamine levels. We hypothesise that levodopa increases risk-taking behaviour via overstimulation at both D1 and D2 receptor level, while a single low dose of haloperidol, as previously reported (Frank and O'Reilly 2006), may block D2 receptors pre- and post-synaptically and may paradoxically lead to higher striatal dopamine acting on remaining striatal D1 receptors, causing speedier decision without influencing risk tolerance. These effects could also fit with a recently proposed computational model of the basal ganglia (Moeller and Bogacz 2019; Moeller et al. 2021). Furthermore, our data suggest that the actual dopaminergic drug effect may be dependent on the individual's baseline dopamine state, which may influence our therapeutic decision as clinicians in the future.

Endogenous fluctuations in the dopaminergic midbrain drive behavioral choice variability.

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.

The influence of 'deliberate' implementation intention on medical students' risk decision task outcomes.

Implementation intention is a kind of behaviour choice strategy in which individuals adopt specific and definite behaviour patterns to achieve behavioural goals. The standard form is 'if something happens, then I will do something'. Previous studies have shown that implementation intention strategy is a fast and effective mental skill with notable advantages. However, adding the requirement of 'deliberate' to the implementation plan will increase the probability of decision adjustment to a certain extent. In this study, the classic Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) was selected as the evaluation index of risk decision-making, and the 'deliberate' implementation intention was adopted to explore the impact of this behavioural strategy on risk selection. The recruited medical students were divided into two groups: the implementation intention group (n = 37) and the control group (n = 34). The baseline assessment for the BART was performed by all participants, and the intensive training of 'deliberate' implementation intention to 'make as much money as possible' was conducted before the post-test decision-making after one week. The adjusted BART (adj BART) value and AvgIncome were significantly higher than those at baseline in the implementation intention group(adj BART value: baseline 12.63 ± 2.90, post-test: 14.78 ± 2.66, F = 15.978, p < 0.001, η 2 = 0.307; AvgIncome: baseline 12.43 ± 2.56, post-test 15.00 ± 2.57, F = 20.953, p < 0.001, η 2 = 0.368). The mixed-model ANOVAs showed that there was a significant interaction between test time and group (adj BART value: F = 4.859, p = 0.031, η 2 = 0.066; AvgIncome: F = 4.261, p = 0.043, η 2 = 0.058). Conclusion: The implementation of 'deliberate' intention can help medical students make more rational judgements in risk decision-making tasks, avoid over conservative behaviour and obtain more benefits.

Group decision-making on risky choice in adolescents and young adults.

Adolescence, a period during which risk-taking behaviors frequently occur, is susceptible to peer influence. However, the direction of peer influence on group decision-making among adolescents and whether it increases group decision-making risk-seeking or risk-aversion is still unclear. This study recruited 84 adolescents (age = 14.44, 48 girls) and 99 young adults (M age = 20.48, 48 women) and adopted two framing tasks (life and money problems) to examine the differences between individual decision-making and group decision-making (of three members each), as well as the strategies for reaching consensus in group discussion. Results showed no evidence that adolescents are more risk seeking than adults in individual decision-making, and the adolescents were even more risk averse toward money problems than adults. We also found that the adolescents were more risk seeking for life problems but more risk averse for money problems in group decision-making than in individual decision-making under the loss frame. Further analysis of group discussion showed that the adolescents were more likely to apply the strategy of "one person puts forward an idea and then the others follow" to reach an agreement, while the adults tended to vote. This study indicated that peers' influence on group decision-making is domain specific, especially among adolescents. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-022-04027-5.

Eating to dare - Nutrition impacts human risky decision and related brain function.

Macronutrient composition modulates plasma amino acids that are precursors of neurotransmitters and can impact brain function and decisions. Neurotransmitter serotonin has been shown to regulate not only food intake, but also economic decisions. We investigated whether an acute nutrition-manipulation inducing plasma tryptophan fluctuation affects brain function, thereby affecting risky decisions. Breakfasts differing in carbohydrate/protein ratios were offered to test changes in risky decision-making while metabolic and neural dynamics were tracked. We identified that a high-carbohydrate/protein breakfast increased plasma tryptophan/LNAA (large neutral amino acids) ratio which mapped to individual risk propensity changes. The nutrition-manipulation and tryptophan/LNAA fluctuation effects on risk propensity changes were further modulated by individual differences in body fat mass. Using fMRI, we further identified activation in the parietal lobule during risk-processing, of which activities 1) were sensitive to the tryptophan/LNAA fluctuation, 2) were modulated by individual's body fat mass, and 3) predicted the risk propensity changes in decision-making. Our results provide evidence for a personalized nutrition-driven modulation on human risky decision and its metabolic and neural mechanisms.