Decision-making in a Risk-taking Task: A PET Study

• Published in: Neuropsychopharmacology (New York, N.Y.) Vol. 26; no. 5; pp. 682 - 691
• Main Authors: Ernst, Monique, Bolla, Karen, Mouratidis, Maria, Contoreggi, Carlo, Matochik, John A, Kurian, V, Cadet, Jean-Lud, Kimes, Alane S, London, Edythe D
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY Elsevier Inc 01.05.2002; Nature Publishing; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: Adult; Anatomical correlates of behavior; Behavior; Behavioral psychophysiology; Biological and medical sciences; Brain - diagnostic imaging; Brain - physiology; Brain Mapping - methods; Brain research; Cognitive task; Decision making; Decision Making - physiology; Female; Functional Laterality - physiology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Guessing; Human; Humans; Informed decision; Learning; Learning. Memory; Male; Medical imaging; Mental disorders; Middle Aged; Neuroimaging; Neuropsychology; Orbital frontal cortex; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Punishment; Reward; Risk-Taking; Tomography, Emission-Computed - methods; Tomography, Emission-Computed - statistics & numerical data; Los Angeles California; United States > US; Punishment; Neuroimaging; Cognitive task; Informed decision; Reward; Guessing; Orbital frontal cortex; Radionuclide study; Learning; Human; Healthy subject; Decision making; Central nervous system; Medical imagery; Cognition; Performance; Brain (vertebrata); Positron; Emission tomography
• ISSN: 0893-133X; 1740-634X
• DOI: 10.1016/S0893-133X(01)00414-6

As decision-making is central to motivated behavior, understanding its neural substrates can help elucidate the deficits that characterize various maladaptive behaviors. Twenty healthy adults performed a risk-taking task during positron emission tomography with 15O-labeled water. The task, a computerized card game, tests the ability to weigh short-term rewards against long-term losses. A control task matched all components of the risk-taking task except for decision-making and the difference between responses to contingent and non-contingent reward and punishment. Decision-making (2 runs of the active task minus 2 runs of the control task) activated orbital and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate, insula, inferior parietal cortex and thalamus predominantly on the right side, and cerebellum predominantly on the left side. In an exploratory analysis, guessing (run 1 minus run 2 of the active task) accompanied activation of sensory-motor associative areas, and amygdala on the left side, whereas informed decision-making (run 2 minus run 1) activated areas that subserve memory (hippocampus, posterior cingulate) and motor control (striatum, cerebellum). The findings provide a framework for future investigations of decision-making in maladaptive behaviors.