301
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Danckert J, Stöttinger E, Quehl N, Anderson B. Right Hemisphere Brain Damage Impairs Strategy Updating. Cereb Cortex 2011; 22:2745-60. [PMID: 22178711 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhr351] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- James Danckert
- Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, N2L 3G1 Ontario, Canada.
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302
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Grant JE, Odlaug BL, Chamberlain SR, Kim SW. Dronabinol, a cannabinoid agonist, reduces hair pulling in trichotillomania: a pilot study. Psychopharmacology (Berl) 2011; 218:493-502. [PMID: 21590520 DOI: 10.1007/s00213-011-2347-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/11/2011] [Accepted: 05/02/2011] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
RATIONALE Trichotillomania is characterized by repetitive pulling causing noticeable hair loss. Pharmacological treatment data for trichotillomania are limited. OBJECTIVE Dronabinol appears to reduce the exocitotoxic damage caused by glutamate release in the striatum and offers promise in reducing compulsive behavior. METHODS Fourteen female subjects (mean age = 33.3 ± 8.9) with DSM-IV trichotillomania were enrolled in a 12-week open-label treatment study of dronabinol (dose ranging from 2.5-15 mg/day). The primary outcome measure was change from baseline to study endpoint on the Massachusetts General Hospital Hair Pulling Scale (MGH-HPS). In order to evaluate effects on cognition, subjects underwent pre- and post-treatment assessments using objective computerized neurocognitive tests. Data were collected from November 2009 to December 2010. RESULTS Twelve of the 14 subjects (85.7%) completed the 12-week study. MGH-HPS scores decreased from a mean of 16.5 ± 4.4 at baseline to 8.7 ± 5.5 at study endpoint (p = 0.001). Nine (64.3%) subjects were "responders" (i.e., ≥ 35% reduction on the MGH-HPS and "much or very much improved" Clinical Global Impression scale). The mean effective dose was 11.6 ± 4.1 mg/day. The medication was well-tolerated, with no significant deleterious effects on cognition. CONCLUSIONS This study, the first to examine a cannabinoid agonist in the treatment of trichotillomania, found that dronabinol demonstrated statistically significant reductions in trichotillomania symptoms, in the absence of negative cognitive effects. Pharmacological modulation of the cannabinoid system may prove useful in controlling a range of compulsive behaviors. Given the small sample and open-label design, however larger placebo-controlled studies incorporating cognitive measures are warranted.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jon E Grant
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota School of Medicine, 2450 Riverside Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55454, USA.
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303
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Simon NW, Montgomery KS, Beas BS, Mitchell MR, LaSarge CL, Mendez IA, Bañuelos C, Vokes CM, Taylor AB, Haberman RP, Bizon JL, Setlow B. Dopaminergic modulation of risky decision-making. J Neurosci 2011; 31:17460-70. [PMID: 22131407 PMCID: PMC3307370 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.3772-11.2011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 121] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2011] [Revised: 09/22/2011] [Accepted: 10/10/2011] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Many psychiatric disorders are characterized by abnormal risky decision-making and dysregulated dopamine receptor expression. The current study was designed to determine how different dopamine receptor subtypes modulate risk-taking in young adult rats, using a "Risky Decision-making Task" that involves choices between small "safe" rewards and large "risky" rewards accompanied by adverse consequences. Rats showed considerable, stable individual differences in risk preference in the task, which were not related to multiple measures of reward motivation, anxiety, or pain sensitivity. Systemic activation of D2-like receptors robustly attenuated risk-taking, whereas drugs acting on D1-like receptors had no effect. Systemic amphetamine also reduced risk-taking, an effect which was attenuated by D2-like (but not D1-like) receptor blockade. Dopamine receptor mRNA expression was evaluated in a separate cohort of drug-naive rats characterized in the task. D1 mRNA expression in both nucleus accumbens shell and insular cortex was positively associated with risk-taking, while D2 mRNA expression in orbitofrontal and medial prefrontal cortex predicted risk preference in opposing nonlinear patterns. Additionally, lower levels of D2 mRNA in dorsal striatum were associated with greater risk-taking. These data strongly implicate dopamine signaling in prefrontal cortical-striatal circuitry in modulating decision-making processes involving integration of reward information with risks of adverse consequences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicholas W. Simon
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260
| | - Karienn S. Montgomery
- Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, Florida 32610-0229
| | - Blanca S. Beas
- Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, Florida 32610-0229
| | - Marci R. Mitchell
- Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, Florida 32610-0229
| | - Candi L. LaSarge
- Department of Anesthesia/Research, Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Cincinnati, Ohio 45229-3026
| | - Ian A. Mendez
- Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California 92697
| | - Cristina Bañuelos
- Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, Florida 32610-0229
| | - Colin M. Vokes
- Department of Psychology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843-4235
| | - Aaron B. Taylor
- Department of Psychology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843-4235
| | - Rebecca P. Haberman
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218-2686, and
| | - Jennifer L. Bizon
- Departments of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, Florida 32610-0256
| | - Barry Setlow
- Departments of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, Florida 32610-0256
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304
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Minati L, Grisoli M, Franceschetti S, Epifani F, Granvillano A, Medford N, Harrison NA, Piacentini S, Critchley HD. Neural signatures of economic parameters during decision-making: a functional MRI (FMRI), electroencephalography (EEG) and autonomic monitoring study. Brain Topogr 2011; 25:73-96. [PMID: 22101380 DOI: 10.1007/s10548-011-0210-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2011] [Accepted: 11/05/2011] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Adaptive behaviour requires an ability to obtain rewards by choosing between different risky options. Financial gambles can be used to study effective decision-making experimentally, and to distinguish processes involved in choice option evaluation from outcome feedback and other contextual factors. Here, we used a paradigm where participants evaluated 'mixed' gambles, each presenting a potential gain and a potential loss and an associated variable outcome probability. We recorded neural responses using autonomic monitoring, electroencephalography (EEG) and functional neuroimaging (fMRI), and used a univariate, parametric design to test for correlations with the eleven economic parameters that varied across gambles, including expected value (EV) and amount magnitude. Consistent with behavioural economic theory, participants were risk-averse. Gamble evaluation generated detectable autonomic responses, but only weak correlations with outcome uncertainty were found, suggesting that peripheral autonomic feedback does not play a major role in this task. Long-latency stimulus-evoked EEG potentials were sensitive to expected gain and expected value, while alpha-band power reflected expected loss and amount magnitude, suggesting parallel representations of distinct economic qualities in cortical activation and central arousal. Neural correlates of expected value representation were localized using fMRI to ventromedial prefrontal cortex, while the processing of other economic parameters was associated with distinct patterns across lateral prefrontal, cingulate, insula and occipital cortices including default-mode network and early visual areas. These multimodal data provide complementary evidence for distributed substrates of choice evaluation across multiple, predominantly cortical, brain systems wherein distinct regions are preferentially attuned to specific economic features. Our findings extend biologically-plausible models of risky decision-making while providing potential biomarkers of economic representations that can be applied to the study of deficits in motivational behaviour in neurological and psychiatric patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ludovico Minati
- Scientific Department, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta, Milan, MI, Italy.
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305
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Neurobiology underlying fibromyalgia symptoms. PAIN RESEARCH AND TREATMENT 2011; 2012:585419. [PMID: 22135739 PMCID: PMC3205654 DOI: 10.1155/2012/585419] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2011] [Accepted: 08/23/2011] [Indexed: 12/04/2022]
Abstract
Fibromyalgia is characterized by chronic widespread pain, clinical symptoms that include cognitive and sleep disturbances, and other abnormalities such as increased sensitivity to painful stimuli, increased sensitivity to multiple sensory modalities, and altered pain modulatory mechanisms. Here we relate experimental findings of fibromyalgia symptoms to anatomical and functional brain changes. Neuroimaging studies show augmented sensory processing in pain-related areas, which, together with gray matter decreases and neurochemical abnormalities in areas related to pain modulation, supports the psychophysical evidence of altered pain perception and inhibition. Gray matter decreases in areas related to emotional decision making and working memory suggest that cognitive disturbances could be related to brain alterations. Altered levels of neurotransmitters involved in sleep regulation link disordered sleep to neurochemical abnormalities. Thus, current evidence supports the view that at least some fibromyalgia symptoms are associated with brain dysfunctions or alterations, giving the long-held “it is all in your head” view of the disorder a new meaning.
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306
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Immordino-Yang MH, Singh V. Hippocampal contributions to the processing of social emotions. Hum Brain Mapp 2011; 34:945-55. [PMID: 22012639 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.21485] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2011] [Revised: 08/19/2011] [Accepted: 09/12/2011] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Inducing and experiencing emotions about others' mental and physical circumstances is thought to involve self-relevant processing and personal memories of similar experiences. The hippocampus is important for self-referential processing during recall and prospection; however, its contributions during social emotions have not been systematically investigated. We use event-related averaging and Granger causal connectivity mapping to investigate hippocampal contributions during the processing of varieties of admiration and compassion pertaining to protagonists' mental versus physical circumstances [admiration for virtue (AV) versus for skill; compassion for social/psychological pain (CSP) versus for physical pain]. Data were collected using a multistep emotion-induction paradigm that included psychosocial interviews, BOLD fMRI, and simultaneous psychophysiological recording. Given that mnemonic demands were equivalent among conditions, we tested whether: (1) the hippocampi would be recruited more strongly and for a longer duration during the processing of AV and CSP; and (2) connectivity between the hippocampi and cortical systems involved in visceral somatosensation/emotional feeling, social cognitive, and self-related processing would be more extensive during AV and CSP. Results elucidate the hippocampus' facilitative role in inducing and sustaining appropriate emotional reactions, the importance of self-related processing during social emotions, and corroborate the conception that varieties of emotional processing pertaining to others' mental and physical situations engage at least partially distinct neural mechanisms.
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307
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Kallianpur KJ, Kirk GR, Sailasuta N, Valcour V, Shiramizu B, Nakamoto BK, Shikuma C. Regional cortical thinning associated with detectable levels of HIV DNA. Cereb Cortex 2011; 22:2065-75. [PMID: 22016479 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhr285] [Citation(s) in RCA: 67] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
High levels of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) DNA in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), and specifically within CD14+ blood monocytes, have been found in HIV-infected individuals with neurocognitive impairment and dementia. The failure of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) to eliminate cognitive dysfunction in HIV may be secondary to persistence of HIV-infected PBMCs which cross the blood-brain barrier, leading to perivascular inflammation and neuronal injury. This study assessed brain cortical thickness relative to HIV DNA levels and identified, we believe for the first time, a neuroimaging correlate of detectable PBMC HIV DNA in subjects with undetectable HIV RNA. Cortical thickness was compared between age- and education-matched groups of older (>40 years) HIV-seropositive subjects on HAART who had detectable (N = 9) and undetectable (N = 10) PBMC HIV DNA. Statistical testing revealed highly significant (P < 0.001) cortical thinning associated with detectable HIV DNA. The largest regions affected were in bilateral insula, orbitofrontal and temporal cortices, right superior frontal cortex, and right caudal anterior cingulate. Cortical thinning correlated significantly with a measure of psychomotor speed. The areas of reduced cortical thickness are key nodes in cognitive and emotional processing networks and may be etiologically important in HIV-related neurological deficits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kalpana J Kallianpur
- Hawaii Center for AIDS, Department of Medicine, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, 96816, USA.
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308
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Abstract
Impulsivity is often characterized by rapid decisions under risk, but most current tests of decision-making do not impose time pressures on participants' choices. Here we introduce a new traffic lights test which requires people to choose whether to program a risky, early eye movement before a traffic light turns green (earning them high rewards or a penalty) or wait for the green light before responding to obtain a small reward instead. Young participants demonstrated bimodal responses: an early, high-risk and a later, low-risk set of choices. By contrast, elderly people invariably waited for the green light and showed little risk-taking. Performance could be modeled as a race between two rise-to-threshold decision processes, one triggered by the green light and the other initiated before it. The test provides a useful measure of rapid decision-making under risk, with the potential to reveal how this process alters with aging or in patient groups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert Adam
- a Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London , London , UK
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309
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de Visser L, Homberg JR, Mitsogiannis M, Zeeb FD, Rivalan M, Fitoussi A, Galhardo V, van den Bos R, Winstanley CA, Dellu-Hagedorn F. Rodent versions of the iowa gambling task: opportunities and challenges for the understanding of decision-making. Front Neurosci 2011; 5:109. [PMID: 22013406 PMCID: PMC3189637 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2011.00109] [Citation(s) in RCA: 81] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2011] [Accepted: 08/29/2011] [Indexed: 01/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Impaired decision-making is a core problem in several psychiatric disorders including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, schizophrenia, obsessive–compulsive disorder, mania, drug addiction, eating disorders, and substance abuse as well as in chronic pain. To ensure progress in the understanding of the neuropathophysiology of these disorders, animal models with good construct and predictive validity are indispensable. Many human studies aimed at measuring decision-making capacities use the Iowa gambling task (IGT), a task designed to model everyday life choices through a conflict between immediate gratification and long-term outcomes. Recently, new rodent models based on the same principle have been developed to investigate the neurobiological mechanisms underlying IGT-like decision-making on behavioral, neural, and pharmacological levels. The comparative strengths, as well as the similarities and differences between these paradigms are discussed. The contribution of these models to elucidate the neurobehavioral factors that lead to poor decision-making and to the development of better treatments for psychiatric illness is considered, along with important future directions and potential limitations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leonie de Visser
- Department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology, Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, University Medical Centre Utrecht, Netherlands
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310
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Ståhle L, Ståhle EL, Granström E, Isaksson S, Annas P, Sepp H. Effects of Sleep or Food Deprivation During Civilian Survival Training on Cognition, Blood Glucose and 3-OH-butyrate. Wilderness Environ Med 2011; 22:202-10. [DOI: 10.1016/j.wem.2011.02.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/19/2010] [Revised: 02/06/2011] [Accepted: 02/22/2011] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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311
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Grant JE, Chamberlain SR, Schreiber LRN, Odlaug BL, Kim SW. Selective decision-making deficits in at-risk gamblers. Psychiatry Res 2011; 189:115-20. [PMID: 21715016 PMCID: PMC3401062 DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2011.05.034] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2011] [Revised: 04/24/2011] [Accepted: 05/24/2011] [Indexed: 01/25/2023]
Abstract
Despite reasonable knowledge of pathological gambling (PG), little is known of its cognitive antecedents. We evaluated decision-making and impulsivity characteristics in people at risk of developing PG using neuropsychological tests. Non-treatment seeking volunteers (18-29 years) who gamble ≥ 5 times/year were recruited from the general community, and split into two groups: those "at risk" of developing PG (n=74) and those social, non-problem gamblers (n=112). Participants undertook the Cambridge Gamble and Stop-signal tasks and were assessed with the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview and the Yale Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale Modified for Pathological Gambling. On the Cambridge Gamble task, the at-risk subjects gambled more points overall, were more likely to go bankrupt, and made more irrational decisions under situations of relative risk ambiguity. On the Stop-signal task, at-risk gamblers did not differ from the social, non-problem gamblers in terms of motor impulse control (stop-signal reaction times). Findings suggest that selective cognitive dysfunction may already be present in terms of decision-making in at-risk gamblers, even before psychopathology arises. These findings implicate selective decision-making deficits and dysfunction of orbitofronto-limbic circuitry in the chain of pathogenesis between social, non-problematic and pathological gambling.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jon Edgar Grant
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota Medical Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55454, USA
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312
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Abstract
Pain has always been considered as part of a defensive strategy, whose specific role is to signal an immediate, active danger. This definition partially fits acute pain, but certainly not chronic pain, that is maintained also in the absence of an active noxa or danger and that nowadays is considered a disease by itself. Moreover, acute pain is not only an automatic alerting system, but its severity and characteristics can change depending on the surrounding environment. The affective, emotional components of pain have been and are the object of extensive attention and research by psychologists, philosophers, physiologists and also pharmacologists. Pain itself can be considered to share the same genesis as emotions and as a specific emotion in contributing to the maintenance of the homeostasis of each unique subject. Interestingly, this role of pain reaches its maximal development in the human; some even argue that it is specific for the human primate.
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313
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Kesner RP, Churchwell JC. An analysis of rat prefrontal cortex in mediating executive function. Neurobiol Learn Mem 2011; 96:417-31. [PMID: 21855643 DOI: 10.1016/j.nlm.2011.07.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 274] [Impact Index Per Article: 21.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2011] [Revised: 07/22/2011] [Accepted: 07/26/2011] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
While it is acknowledged that species specific differences are an implicit condition of comparative studies, rodent models of prefrontal function serve a significant role in the acquisition of converging evidence on prefrontal function across levels of analysis and research techniques. The purpose of the present review is to examine whether the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in rats supports a variety of processes associated with executive function including working memory, temporal processing, planning (prospective coding), flexibility, rule learning, and decision making. Therefore, in this review we examined changes associated with working memory processes for spatial locations, visual objects, odors, tastes, and response domains or attributes, temporal processes including temporal order, sequence learning, prospective coding, behavioral flexibility associated with reversal learning and set shifting, paired associate learning, and decision making based on effort, time discounting, and uncertainty following damage to the PFC in rats. In addition, potential parallel processes of executive function in monkeys and humans based on several theories of subregional differentiation within the PFC will be presented. Specifically, theories based on domain or attribute specificity (Goldman-Rakic, 1996), level of processing (Petrides, 1996), rule learning based on complexity (Wise, Murray, & Gerfen, 1996), executive functions based on connectivity with other brain regions associated with top-down control (Miller & Cohen, 2001), are presented and applied to PFC function in rats with the aim of understanding subregional specificity in the rat PFC. The data suggest that there is subregional specificity within the PFC of rats, monkey and humans and there are parallel cognitive functions of the different subregions of the PFC in rats, monkeys and humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Raymond P Kesner
- Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
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314
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O'Sullivan N, Szczepanowski R, El-Deredy W, Mason L, Bentall RP. fMRI evidence of a relationship between hypomania and both increased goal-sensitivity and positive outcome-expectancy bias. Neuropsychologia 2011; 49:2825-35. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.06.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 69] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/19/2010] [Revised: 05/29/2011] [Accepted: 06/09/2011] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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315
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Pan PL, Song W, Shang HF. Voxel-wise meta-analysis of gray matter abnormalities in idiopathic Parkinson's disease. Eur J Neurol 2011; 19:199-206. [PMID: 21762435 DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-1331.2011.03474.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 94] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Abstract
Structural neuroimaging studies on idiopathic Parkinson's disease (IPD) with voxel-based morphometry (VBM) yielded variable and conflicting findings. A systematic review of VBM studies of patients with IPD and healthy control (HC) subjects published in PubMed, ISI Web of Science, Embase, and Medline databases from 1995 to 25 October 2010 was conducted. Coordinates were extracted from clusters of significant gray matter (GM) difference between patients with IPD and HC subjects. Meta-analysis was performed using signed differential mapping. A total of 17 VBM studies involving 498 patients with IPD and 375 HC subjects met the inclusion criteria. A significant regional GM volume decrease was detected in the left inferior frontal gyrus (BA47) extending to the left superior temporal gyrus (BA38) and the left insula (BA13) of patients with IPD compared with HC subjects. The findings of this study remain largely unchanged in quartile and jackknife sensitivity analyses and in subgroup analyses. Robust GM reductions in the inferior frontal/orbitofrontal gyrus (BA47) are implicated in IPD, and the reductions may be related to the mediation of the non-motor IPD symptoms, such as cognitive, emotional, and autonomic functions. Further studies must be conducted to determine whether the findings are specific to all IPD subtypes or different from the atypical Parkinsonism.
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Affiliation(s)
- P L Pan
- Department of Neurology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
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316
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Jones CL, Minati L, Harrison NA, Ward J, Critchley HD. Under pressure: response urgency modulates striatal and insula activity during decision-making under risk. PLoS One 2011; 6:e20942. [PMID: 21677769 PMCID: PMC3108983 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0020942] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/24/2010] [Accepted: 05/16/2011] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
When deciding whether to bet in situations that involve potential monetary loss or gain (mixed gambles), a subjective sense of pressure can influence the evaluation of the expected utility associated with each choice option. Here, we explored how gambling decisions, their psychophysiological and neural counterparts are modulated by an induced sense of urgency to respond. Urgency influenced decision times and evoked heart rate responses, interacting with the expected value of each gamble. Using functional MRI, we observed that this interaction was associated with changes in the activity of the striatum, a critical region for both reward and choice selection, and within the insula, a region implicated as the substrate of affective feelings arising from interoceptive signals which influence motivational behavior. Our findings bridge current psychophysiological and neurobiological models of value representation and action-programming, identifying the striatum and insular cortex as the key substrates of decision-making under risk and urgency.
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Affiliation(s)
- Catherine L. Jones
- Department of Psychiatry, Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Falmer, United Kingdom
- Department of Psychology, University of Sussex, Falmer, United Kingdom
- * E-mail: (CLJ); (LM)
| | - Ludovico Minati
- Department of Psychiatry, Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Falmer, United Kingdom
- Department of Science, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Neurologico “Carlo Besta”, Milano, Italy
- * E-mail: (CLJ); (LM)
| | - Neil A. Harrison
- Department of Psychiatry, Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Falmer, United Kingdom
- Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Brighton, United Kingdom
| | - Jamie Ward
- Department of Psychology, University of Sussex, Falmer, United Kingdom
- Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, University of Sussex, Falmer, United Kingdom
| | - Hugo D. Critchley
- Department of Psychiatry, Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Falmer, United Kingdom
- Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Brighton, United Kingdom
- Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, University of Sussex, Falmer, United Kingdom
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317
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Brosch T, Coppin G, Schwartz S, Sander D. The importance of actions and the worth of an object: dissociable neural systems representing core value and economic value. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2011; 7:497-505. [PMID: 21642352 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsr036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Neuroeconomic research has delineated neural regions involved in the computation of value, referring to a currency for concrete choices and decisions ('economic value'). Research in psychology and sociology, on the other hand, uses the term 'value' to describe motivational constructs that guide choices and behaviors across situations ('core value'). As a first step towards an integration of these literatures, we compared the neural regions computing economic value and core value. Replicating previous work, economic value computations activated a network centered on medial orbitofrontal cortex. Core value computations activated medial prefrontal cortex, a region involved in the processing of self-relevant information and dorsal striatum, involved in action selection. Core value ratings correlated with activity in precuneus and anterior prefrontal cortex, potentially reflecting the degree to which a core value is perceived as internalized part of one's self-concept. Distributed activation pattern in insula and ACC allowed differentiating individual core value types. These patterns may represent evaluation profiles reflecting prototypical fundamental concerns expressed in the core value types. Our findings suggest mechanisms by which core values, as motivationally important long-term goals anchored in the self-schema, may have the behavioral power to drive decisions and behaviors in the absence of immediately rewarding behavioral options.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tobias Brosch
- Department of Psychology, New York University, 6 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003, USA.
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318
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Roldan Gerschcovich E, Cerquetti D, Tenca E, Leiguarda R. The impact of bilateral cerebellar damage on theory of mind, empathy and decision making. Neurocase 2011; 17:270-5. [PMID: 20521202 DOI: 10.1080/13554791003730618] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
The extensive infarction affecting the posterior vermis and the medial and posterior regions of both cerebellar hemispheres, as well as the small central pontine lesion, seems to have disrupted multiple cerebral and brainstem cerebellar loops. These loops process information related to many cognitive domains, behavior and emotion, including decision making, empathy and theory of mind.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eliana Roldan Gerschcovich
- Neuroscience Department, Raul Carrea Institute for Neurological Research (FLENI), Buenos Aires, Argentina
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319
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Clark L, Dombrovski AY, Siegle GJ, Butters MA, Shollenberger CL, Sahakian BJ, Szanto K. Impairment in risk-sensitive decision-making in older suicide attempters with depression. Psychol Aging 2011; 26:321-330. [PMID: 21443349 PMCID: PMC3115442 DOI: 10.1037/a0021646] [Citation(s) in RCA: 128] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Suicidal behavior is a potentially lethal complication of late-life depression. In younger adults, suicide has been linked to abnormal decision-making ability. Given that there are substantial age-related decreases in decision-making ability, and that older adults experience environmental stressors that require effective decision-making, we reasoned that impaired decision-making may be particularly relevant to suicidal behavior in the elderly. We thus compared performance on a probabilistic decision-making task that does not involve working memory ("Cambridge Gamble Task") in four groups of older adults: (1) individuals with major depression and a history of suicide attempt (n = 25), (2) individuals with major depression with active suicidal ideation but no suicide attempt (n = 13), (3) individuals with major depression without suicidality (n = 35), and (4) nondepressed control subjects (n = 22). There was a significant effect of group on quality of decision-making, whereby the suicide attempters exhibited poorer ability to choose the likely outcome, compared with the nonsuicidal depressed and nondepressed comparison subjects. There were no group differences in betting behavior. The suicide attempters differed in several aspects of social problem-solving on a self-report scale. Quality of decision-making was negatively correlated with the score on the impulsive/careless problem-solving subscale. These data suggest that older suicide attempters have a deficit in risk-sensitive decision-making, extending observations in younger adults. More specifically, older suicide attempters seem to neglect outcome probability and make poor choices. These impairments may precipitate and perpetuate suicidal crisis in depressed elders. Identification of decision-making impairment in suicidal elders may help with designing effective interventions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luke Clark
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge
| | | | - Greg J Siegle
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
| | - Meryl A Butters
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
| | | | - Barbara J Sahakian
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Addenbrooke's Hospital
| | - Katalin Szanto
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
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320
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321
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Peters J, Büchel C. The neural mechanisms of inter-temporal decision-making: understanding variability. Trends Cogn Sci 2011; 15:227-39. [PMID: 21497544 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2011.03.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 413] [Impact Index Per Article: 31.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2011] [Accepted: 03/04/2011] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
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322
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Lee AKW, Jerram M, Fulwiler C, Gansler DA. Neural correlates of impulsivity factors in psychiatric patients and healthy volunteers: a voxel-based morphometry study. Brain Imaging Behav 2011; 5:52-64. [PMID: 21210255 DOI: 10.1007/s11682-010-9112-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
According to bottom-up/top-down models, impulsivity facets are represented across the cerebral cortex and subcortex. Hypothesized gray matter correlates of motor, attentional and non-planning impulsivity were examined in groups of 35 psychiatric patients characterized by self-control problems and 18 healthy volunteers. Among patients, a positive correlation was found between motor impulsivity and the right cerebellum, and a negative correlation emerged between attentional impulsivity and the left lateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). Among controls, attentional and motor impulsivity correlated negatively with the left superior temporal gyrus, while non-planning impulsivity correlated positively with the left OFC and lateral frontopolar cortex. Follow-up analyses revealed convergence in correlation patterns from patients to controls, but not vice versa. That pattern suggested broader neural representation of the trait in the healthy controls, who were less impulsive than the psychiatric patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Athene K W Lee
- Department of Psychology, Suffolk University, Boston, MA, USA
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323
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Bermejo PE, Dorado R, Zea-Sevilla MA, Sánchez Menéndez V. Neuroanatomy of financial decisions. Neurologia 2011; 26:173-81. [PMID: 21163202 DOI: 10.1016/j.nrl.2010.09.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2010] [Revised: 08/27/2010] [Accepted: 09/18/2010] [Indexed: 02/03/2023] Open
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Neuroeconomics is a new science that studies the brain processes involved in taking decisions, particularly related to economy and it has experienced an important advance in the recent years due to the development of the new neuroimaging techniques, basically functional magnetic resonance imaging. The aim of this paper it to carry out a review of the literature on the different neurological mechanisms involved in taking financial decisions, the concerned brain structures and the diseases that can affect them. SOURCES We made a non systematic review of the literature in primary (PubMed) and secondary (Tripdatabase and Cochrane Library) bibliographic databases. We also used bibliography given by the Asociación Española de Neuroeconomía. DEVELOPMENT Brain reward and loss aversion systems suppose a balance that makes us take one or another decision. Dopamine plays an important role on it and several brain structures have been involved in this balance such as the amygdale, the insula, the medial prefrontal cortex, the anterior and posterior cingulated cortex, the accumbens nucleus and the ventral tegmental area. The alteration of this balance may produce inappropriate financial behaviors what may occur in common diseases including depression, mania, alcoholism, gambling and several impulse control disorders. CONCLUSIONS Neurologists should define our role in this interdisciplinary field due to the privileged position of our specialty to study how the brain works and due to the potential growing of this science in the near future.
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Affiliation(s)
- P E Bermejo
- Servicio de Neurología, Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro, Majadahonda, Madrid, Spain.
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324
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Lesions of the basolateral amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex differentially affect acquisition and performance of a rodent gambling task. J Neurosci 2011; 31:2197-204. [PMID: 21307256 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.5597-10.2011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 120] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Risky decision making on the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) has been observed in several psychiatric disorders, including substance abuse, schizophrenia, and pathological gambling. Such deficits are often attributed to impaired processing within the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) because patients with damage to this area or to the amygdala, which is strongly interconnected with the OFC, can likewise show enhanced choice of high-risk options. However, whether damage to the OFC or amygdala impairs subjects' ability to learn the task, or actually affects the decision-making process itself, is currently unclear. To address these issues, rats were trained to perform a rodent gambling task (rGT) either before or after bilateral excitotoxic lesions to the basolateral amygdala (BLA) or OFC. Maximum profits in both the rGT and IGT are obtained by favoring smaller rewards associated with lower penalties, and avoiding the tempting, yet ultimately disadvantageous, large reward options. Lesions of the OFC or BLA made before task acquisition initially impaired animals' ability to determine the optimal strategy, but did not disrupt decision making in the long term. In contrast, lesions of the BLA, but not the OFC, made after the task had been acquired increased risky choice. These results suggest that, although both regions contribute to the development of appropriate choice behavior under risk, the BLA maintains a more fundamental role in guiding these decisions. The maladaptive choice pattern observed on the IGT in patients with OFC lesions could therefore partially reflect a learning deficit, whereas amygdala damage may give rise to a more robust decision-making impairment.
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325
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Hyperactive error responses and altered connectivity in ventromedial and frontoinsular cortices in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Biol Psychiatry 2011; 69:583-91. [PMID: 21144497 PMCID: PMC3059508 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2010.09.048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 102] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/24/2010] [Revised: 09/25/2010] [Accepted: 09/28/2010] [Indexed: 01/02/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) show abnormal functioning in ventral frontal brain regions involved in emotional/motivational processes, including anterior insula/frontal operculum (aI/fO) and ventromedial frontal cortex (VMPFC). While OCD has been associated with an increased neural response to errors, the influence of motivational factors on this effect remains poorly understood. METHODS To investigate the contribution of motivational factors to error processing in OCD and to examine functional connectivity between regions involved in the error response, functional magnetic resonance imaging data were measured in 39 OCD patients (20 unmedicated, 19 medicated) and 38 control subjects (20 unmedicated, 18 medicated) during an error-eliciting interference task where motivational context was varied using monetary incentives (null, loss, and gain). RESULTS Across all errors, OCD patients showed reduced deactivation of VMPFC and greater activation in left aI/FO compared with control subjects. For errors specifically resulting in a loss, patients further hyperactivated VMPFC, as well as right aI/FO. Independent of activity associated with task events, OCD patients showed greater functional connectivity between VMPFC and regions of bilateral aI/FO and right thalamus. CONCLUSIONS Obsessive-compulsive disorder patients show greater activation in neural regions associated with emotion and valuation when making errors, which could be related to altered intrinsic functional connectivity between brain networks. These results highlight the importance of emotional/motivational responses to mistakes in OCD and point to the need for further study of network interactions in the disorder.
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326
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Aupperle RL, Paulus MP. Neural systems underlying approach and avoidance in anxiety disorders. DIALOGUES IN CLINICAL NEUROSCIENCE 2011. [PMID: 21319496 PMCID: PMC3181993 DOI: 10.31887/dcns.2010.12.4/raupperle] [Citation(s) in RCA: 128] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Approach-avoidance conflict is an important psychological concept that has been used extensively to better understand cognition and emotion. This review focuses on neural systems involved in approach, avoidance, and conflict decision making, and how these systems overlap with implicated neural substrates of anxiety disorders. In particular, the role of amygdala, insula, ventral striatal, and prefrontal regions are discussed with respect to approach and avoidance behaviors. Three specific hypotheses underlying the dysfunction in anxiety disorders are proposed, including: (i) over-representation of avoidance valuation related to limbic overactivation; (ii) under- or over-representation of approach valuation related to attenuated or exaggerated striatal activation respectively; and (iii) insufficient integration and arbitration of approach and avoidance valuations related to attenuated orbitofrontal cortex activation. These dysfunctions can be examined experimentally using versions of existing decision-making paradigms, but may also require new translational and innovative approaches to probe approach-avoidance conflict and related neural systems in anxiety disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robin L Aupperle
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego (UCSD), California 92037-0985, USA
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327
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Nicolle A, Fleming SM, Bach DR, Driver J, Dolan RJ. A regret-induced status quo bias. J Neurosci 2011; 31:3320-7. [PMID: 21368043 PMCID: PMC3059787 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.5615-10.2011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2010] [Accepted: 12/22/2010] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
A suboptimal bias toward accepting the status quo option in decision-making is well established behaviorally, but the underlying neural mechanisms are less clear. Behavioral evidence suggests the emotion of regret is higher when errors arise from rejection rather than acceptance of a status quo option. Such asymmetry in the genesis of regret might drive the status quo bias on subsequent decisions, if indeed erroneous status quo rejections have a greater neuronal impact than erroneous status quo acceptances. To test this, we acquired human fMRI data during a difficult perceptual decision task that incorporated a trial-to-trial intrinsic status quo option, with explicit signaling of outcomes (error or correct). Behaviorally, experienced regret was higher after an erroneous status quo rejection compared with acceptance. Anterior insula and medial prefrontal cortex showed increased blood oxygenation level-dependent signal after such status quo rejection errors. In line with our hypothesis, a similar pattern of signal change predicted acceptance of the status quo on a subsequent trial. Thus, our data link a regret-induced status quo bias to error-related activity on the preceding trial.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antoinette Nicolle
- Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, United Kingdom.
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328
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Walteros C, Sánchez-Navarro JP, Muñoz MA, Martínez-Selva JM, Chialvo D, Montoya P. Altered associative learning and emotional decision making in fibromyalgia. J Psychosom Res 2011; 70:294-301. [PMID: 21334501 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2010.07.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 85] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2009] [Revised: 07/27/2010] [Accepted: 07/27/2010] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE The present study examines the possibility that a chronic pain condition, such as fibromyalgia, was associated with deficits in decision making and associative learning. METHODS Fifteen patients with fibromyalgia (aged 42-59 years) and 15 healthy controls (aged 39-61 years) participated in the experiment. Subjects completed anxiety (STAI) and depression (BDI) questionnaires, as well as standardized neuropsychological tests (Stroop and WAIS subscales). In addition, an emotional decision-making task (Iowa Gambling Task) and a conditional associative learning task (CALT) were administered to all participants. RESULTS Results indicated that fibromyalgia had a poorer performance than healthy controls in both tasks, showing more perseveration errors in the learning task, and more disadvantageous decisions, as well as a more random behavior in the gambling task. Moreover, we observed that poor performance on the associative learning task was mediated by depression, whereas performance on the gambling task was not influenced by depression. No group differences were found on the standardized neuropsychological tests. CONCLUSION These findings indicate that pain and depressive symptoms in fibromyalgia might lead to significant deficits in emotionally charged cognitive tasks. Furthermore, it suggests that chronic pain might impose a high cost on executive control, undermining mainly affective processes involved in learning, memory, attention, and decision-making.
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Affiliation(s)
- César Walteros
- University Institute of Health Sciences Research (IUNICS), University of Balearic Islands (UIB), Palma, Spain
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329
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Newcombe VFJ, Outtrim JG, Chatfield DA, Manktelow A, Hutchinson PJ, Coles JP, Williams GB, Sahakian BJ, Menon DK. Parcellating the neuroanatomical basis of impaired decision-making in traumatic brain injury. Brain 2011; 134:759-68. [PMID: 21310727 PMCID: PMC3044832 DOI: 10.1093/brain/awq388] [Citation(s) in RCA: 63] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Cognitive dysfunction is a devastating consequence of traumatic brain injury that affects the majority of those who survive with moderate-to-severe injury, and many patients with mild head injury. Disruption of key monoaminergic neurotransmitter systems, such as the dopaminergic system, may play a key role in the widespread cognitive dysfunction seen after traumatic axonal injury. Manifestations of injury to this system may include impaired decision-making and impulsivity. We used the Cambridge Gambling Task to characterize decision-making and risk-taking behaviour, outside of a learning context, in a cohort of 44 patients at least six months post-traumatic brain injury. These patients were found to have broadly intact processing of risk adjustment and probability judgement, and to bet similar amounts to controls. However, a patient preference for consistently early bets indicated a higher level of impulsiveness. These behavioural measures were compared with imaging findings on diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging. Performance in specific domains of the Cambridge Gambling Task correlated inversely and specifically with the severity of diffusion tensor imaging abnormalities in regions that have been implicated in these cognitive processes. Thus, impulsivity was associated with increased apparent diffusion coefficient bilaterally in the orbitofrontal gyrus, insula and caudate; abnormal risk adjustment with increased apparent diffusion coefficient in the right thalamus and dorsal striatum and left caudate; and impaired performance on rational choice with increased apparent diffusion coefficient in the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortices, and the superior frontal gyri, right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, the dorsal and ventral striatum, and left hippocampus. Importantly, performance in specific cognitive domains of the task did not correlate with diffusion tensor imaging abnormalities in areas not implicated in their performance. The ability to dissociate the location and extent of damage with performance on the various task components using diffusion tensor imaging allows important insights into the neuroanatomical basis of impulsivity following traumatic brain injury. The ability to detect such damage in vivo may have important implications for patient management, patient selection for trials, and to help understand complex neurocognitive pathways.
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Affiliation(s)
- Virginia F. J. Newcombe
- 1 Division of Anaesthesia, Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 2QQ, UK,2 Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, CB2 2QQ, UK
| | - Joanne G. Outtrim
- 1 Division of Anaesthesia, Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 2QQ, UK,2 Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, CB2 2QQ, UK
| | - Doris A. Chatfield
- 1 Division of Anaesthesia, Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 2QQ, UK,2 Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, CB2 2QQ, UK
| | - Anne Manktelow
- 1 Division of Anaesthesia, Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 2QQ, UK,2 Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, CB2 2QQ, UK
| | - Peter J. Hutchinson
- 2 Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, CB2 2QQ, UK,3 Academic Neurosurgery Unit, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, CB2 2QQ, UK
| | - Jonathan P. Coles
- 1 Division of Anaesthesia, Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 2QQ, UK,2 Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, CB2 2QQ, UK
| | - Guy B. Williams
- 1 Division of Anaesthesia, Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 2QQ, UK
| | - Barbara J. Sahakian
- 4 Department of Psychiatry, School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge, CB2 2QQ UK,5 MRC/Wellcome Trust Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, CB2 3EB, UK
| | - David K. Menon
- 1 Division of Anaesthesia, Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 2QQ, UK,2 Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, CB2 2QQ, UK
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330
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Roy AK, Gotimer K, Kelly AMC, Castellanos FX, Milham MP, Ernst M. Uncovering putative neural markers of risk avoidance. Neuropsychologia 2011; 49:937-944. [PMID: 21354189 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.02.038] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2010] [Revised: 02/16/2011] [Accepted: 02/17/2011] [Indexed: 01/21/2023]
Abstract
Risk avoidance is a hallmark of psychopathological conditions such as anxiety disorders. Yet few studies have examined its neural basis. The present work sought to identify the neural correlates of risk avoidance. While functional MRI scans were acquired, healthy adults (N=23) played a Wheel of Fortune game during which they chose to bet or pass on each of 104 proposed gamble trials. Participants also completed the Cognitive Appraisal of Risky Events (CARE, Fromme et al., 1997), a self-report measure of "real world" risky behavior. As expected, decision-making was associated with activation, as measured by increased BOLD responses, of the striatum, insula, anterior cingulate cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and parietal lobe. Risk avoidance during probabilistic trials (percent of trials passed) was significantly correlated with precuneus and striatal responses to trials with a certain outcome (No-Risk). Similarly, "real world" risk avoidance, as measured by the CARE, was significantly correlated with precuneus activity during No-Risk trials. Collectively, these data suggest that precuneus and striatal responses to decision-making under certainty represent putative neural markers of risk avoidance in the laboratory and in the "real world." Further, they underline the need to extend neuroimaging research on risk avoidance, and associated anxiety disorders, to posterior cortical regions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amy Krain Roy
- Department of Psychology, James Hall, Brooklyn College, City University of New York, Brooklyn, NY 11210, USA; Phyllis Green and Randolph Cowen Institute for Pediatric Neuroscience, New York University Child Study Center, NYU School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, USA.
| | - Kristin Gotimer
- Phyllis Green and Randolph Cowen Institute for Pediatric Neuroscience, New York University Child Study Center, NYU School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, USA
| | - A M Clare Kelly
- Phyllis Green and Randolph Cowen Institute for Pediatric Neuroscience, New York University Child Study Center, NYU School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, USA
| | - F Xavier Castellanos
- Phyllis Green and Randolph Cowen Institute for Pediatric Neuroscience, New York University Child Study Center, NYU School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, USA
| | - Michael P Milham
- Phyllis Green and Randolph Cowen Institute for Pediatric Neuroscience, New York University Child Study Center, NYU School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, USA
| | - Monique Ernst
- Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program, National Institute of Mental Health/National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
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331
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Hinvest NS, Elliott R, McKie S, Anderson IM. Neural correlates of choice behavior related to impulsivity and venturesomeness. Neuropsychologia 2011; 49:2311-20. [PMID: 21334351 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.02.023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2010] [Revised: 01/10/2011] [Accepted: 02/13/2011] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
Impulsivity has been associated with several psychiatric disorders including drug addiction and gambling. Impulsive subjects typically have a preference for short-term over long-term rewards and make risky choices. This study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neural correlates of self-rated impulsivity and venturesomeness during tasks involving delayed and risky choice. A broader sampling approach was taken by recruiting participants with behaviors that have been linked to impulsivity (gambling N=15, and recreational drug use N=10) and those without these behaviors (N=9). Selection between delayed or probabilistic rewards was associated with activation in fronto-parietal regions in line with previous research. When selecting between delayed rewards, activity within the pregenual anterior cingulate cortex and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex correlated positively with impulsivity scores while activity within the orbitofrontal cortex, subgenual anterior cingulate cortex and caudate correlated positively with venturesomeness scores. Selection between probabilistic rewards revealed no correlation between scores and regional activations. The results from this study provide targets for future research investigating the neural substrates of impulsivity. They also provide targets for the further investigation into the pathophysiology of addiction and impulse-control disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Neal S Hinvest
- Neuroscience and Psychiatry Unit, School of Community Based Medicine, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PT, United Kingdom.
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332
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Martin LN, Delgado MR. The influence of emotion regulation on decision-making under risk. J Cogn Neurosci 2011; 23:2569-81. [PMID: 21254801 DOI: 10.1162/jocn.2011.21618] [Citation(s) in RCA: 60] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
Cognitive strategies typically involved in regulating negative emotions have recently been shown to also be effective with positive emotions associated with monetary rewards. However, it is less clear how these strategies influence behavior, such as preferences expressed during decision-making under risk, and the underlying neural circuitry. That is, can the effective use of emotion regulation strategies during presentation of a reward-conditioned stimulus influence decision-making under risk and neural structures involved in reward processing such as the striatum? To investigate this question, we asked participants to engage in imagery-focused regulation strategies during the presentation of a cue that preceded a financial decision-making phase. During the decision phase, participants then made a choice between a risky and a safe monetary lottery. Participants who successfully used cognitive regulation, as assessed by subjective ratings about perceived success and facility in implementation of strategies, made fewer risky choices in comparison with trials where decisions were made in the absence of cognitive regulation. Additionally, BOLD responses in the striatum were attenuated during decision-making as a function of successful emotion regulation. These findings suggest that exerting cognitive control over emotional responses can modulate neural responses associated with reward processing (e.g., striatum) and promote more goal-directed decision-making (e.g., less risky choices), illustrating the potential importance of cognitive strategies in curbing risk-seeking behaviors before they become maladaptive (e.g., substance abuse).
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura N Martin
- Department of Psychology, RutgersUniversity, 101Warren Street, Newark, NJ 07102, USA.
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333
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Abstract
The insula has been implicated as a component of central networks subserving evaluative and affective processes. This study examined evaluative valence and arousal ratings in response to picture stimuli in patients with lesions of the insula and two contrast groups: a control-lesion group (the primary contrast group) and an amygdala-lesion group. Patients rated the positivity and negativity of picture stimuli (from very unpleasant to very pleasant) and how emotionally arousing they found the pictures to be. Compared with patients in the control-lesion group, patients with insular lesions reported reduced arousal in response to both unpleasant and pleasant stimuli, as well as marked attenuation of valence ratings. In contrast, the arousal ratings of patients with amygdala lesions were selectively attenuated for unpleasant stimuli, and these patients' positive and negative valence ratings did not differ from those of the control-lesion group. Results support the view that the insular cortex may play a broad role in integrating affective and cognitive processes, whereas the amygdala may have a more selective role in affective arousal, especially for negative stimuli.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gary G. Berntson
- Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210
| | - Greg J. Norman
- Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210
| | - Antoine Bechara
- Department of Psychology and the Brain and Creativity Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089, and the Department of Neurology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242
| | - Daniel Tranel
- Department of Neurology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, 52242
- Department of Psychology, University of Iowa
| | - Joel Bruss
- Department of Neurology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, 52242
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334
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Elliott R, Zahn R, Deakin JFW, Anderson IM. Affective cognition and its disruption in mood disorders. Neuropsychopharmacology 2011; 36:153-82. [PMID: 20571485 PMCID: PMC3055516 DOI: 10.1038/npp.2010.77] [Citation(s) in RCA: 202] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2010] [Revised: 04/23/2010] [Accepted: 05/03/2010] [Indexed: 01/13/2023]
Abstract
In this review, we consider affective cognition, responses to emotional stimuli occurring in the context of cognitive evaluation. In particular, we discuss emotion categorization, biasing of memory and attention, as well as social/moral emotion. We discuss limited neuropsychological evidence suggesting that affective cognition depends critically on the amygdala, ventromedial frontal cortex, and the connections between them. We then consider neuroimaging studies of affective cognition in healthy volunteers, which have led to the development of more sophisticated neural models of these processes. Disturbances of affective cognition are a core and specific feature of mood disorders, and we discuss the evidence supporting this claim, both from behavioral and neuroimaging perspectives. Serotonin is considered to be a key neurotransmitter involved in depression, and there is a considerable body of research exploring whether serotonin may mediate disturbances of affective cognition. The final section presents an overview of this literature and considers implications for understanding the pathophysiology of mood disorder as well as developing and evaluating new treatment strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rebecca Elliott
- Neuroscience and Psychiatry Unit, School of Community-Based Medicine, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
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335
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Bermejo P, Dorado R, Zea-Sevilla M, Sánchez Menéndez V. Neuroanatomy of financial decisions. NEUROLOGÍA (ENGLISH EDITION) 2011. [DOI: 10.1016/s2173-5808(11)70034-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
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336
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Nieuwenhuis ILC, Takashima A. The role of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in memory consolidation. Behav Brain Res 2010; 218:325-34. [PMID: 21147169 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2010.12.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 149] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2010] [Accepted: 12/07/2010] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
"System-level memory consolidation theory" posits that the hippocampus an initially links the neocortical representations, followed by a shift to a hippocampus-independent neocortical network. With consolidation, an increase in activity in the human subgenual ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) has repeatedly been shown. Previously we and others have proposed that this area might link the neocortical representational areas in remote memory, similarly as has been proposed for the rodent anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Here, we review literature involving the human vmPFC to investigate if the results in other cognitive domains are in line with this proposal. We have taken into account reports on patients with lesions in this area, findings in reward and valuation, fear extinction, and confabulation studies, and integrated these with findings in consolidation studies. We conclude: Firstly, it is unlikely that the rodent ACC is homolog to the human subgenual vmPFC. It is more likely that the rodent infralimbic cortex is, as proposed in the fear extinction literature. Secondly, we propose that the function of the subgenual vmPFC is to integrate information which is represented in separate parts of the limbic system (the hippocampus, the amygdala, and the ventral striatum) and that the integrated representation in the subgenual vmPFC might subsequently be used to suppress irrelevant representations in the limbic system. With the progression of time, the importance of the integrated representation in the subgenual vmPFC increases, because it may replace some direct connectivity across the limbic areas which decays with time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ingrid L C Nieuwenhuis
- Sleep and Neuroimaging Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of California, Tolman Hall 3331, Berkeley, CA 94720-1650, USA
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337
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Abstract
Humans are creatures of routine and habit. When faced with situations in which a default option is available, people show a consistent tendency to stick with the default. Why this occurs is unclear. To elucidate its neural basis, we used a novel gambling task in conjunction with functional magnetic resonance imaging. Behavioral results revealed that participants were more likely to choose the default card and felt enhanced emotional responses to outcomes after making the decision to switch. We show that increased tendency to switch away from the default during the decision phase was associated with decreased activity in the anterior insula; activation in this same area in reaction to "switching away from the default and losing" was positively related with experienced frustration. In contrast, decisions to choose the default engaged the ventral striatum, the same reward area as seen in winning. Our findings highlight aversive processes in the insula as underlying the default bias and suggest that choosing the default may be rewarding in itself.
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338
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Coding of Reward Risk by Orbitofrontal Neurons Is Mostly Distinct from Coding of Reward Value. Neuron 2010; 68:789-800. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2010.09.031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 181] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/15/2010] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
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339
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He Q, Xue G, Chen C, Lu Z, Dong Q, Lei X, Ding N, Li J, Li H, Chen C, Li J, Moyzis RK, Bechara A. Serotonin transporter gene-linked polymorphic region (5-HTTLPR) influences decision making under ambiguity and risk in a large Chinese sample. Neuropharmacology 2010; 59:518-26. [PMID: 20659488 PMCID: PMC2946467 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropharm.2010.07.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 71] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2010] [Revised: 07/07/2010] [Accepted: 07/07/2010] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
Risky decision making is a complex process that involves weighing the probabilities of alternative options that can be desirable, undesirable, or neutral. Individuals vary greatly in how they make decisions either under ambiguity and/or under risk. Such individual differences may have genetic bases. Based on previous studies on the genetic basis of decision making, two decision making tasks [i.e., the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and Loss Aversion Task (LAT)] were used to test the effect of 5-HTTLPR polymorphism on decision making under ambiguity and under risk in a large Han Chinese sample (572 college students, 312 females). Basic intelligence and memory tests were also included to control for the influence of basic cognitive abilities on decision making. We found that 5-HTTLPR polymorphism significantly influenced performance in both IGT and LAT. After controlling for intelligence and memory abilities, subjects homozygous for s allele had lower IGT scores than l carriers in the first 40 trials of the IGT task. They also exhibited higher loss aversion than l carriers in the LAT task. Moreover, the effects of 5-HTTLPR were stronger for males than for females. These results extend the literature on the important role of emotion in decision making under ambiguity and risk, and shed additional lights on how decision making is influenced by culture as well as sex differences. Combining our results with existing literature, we propose that these effects might be mediated by a neural circuitry that comprises the amygdala, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and insular cortex. Understanding the genetic factors affecting decision making in healthy subjects may allow us to better identify at-risk individuals, and better target the development of new potential treatments for specific disorders such as schizophrenia, addiction, and depression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qinghua He
- National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, P. R. China
- Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 90089, United States
| | - Gui Xue
- Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 90089, United States
| | - Chuansheng Chen
- Department of Psychology and Social Behavior, University of California, Irvine, 92697, United States
| | - Zhonglin Lu
- Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 90089, United States
| | - Qi Dong
- National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, P. R. China
| | - Xuemei Lei
- National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, P. R. China
| | - Ni Ding
- National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, P. R. China
| | - Jin Li
- National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, P. R. China
- Department of Psychology and Social Behavior, University of California, Irvine, 92697, United States
| | - He Li
- National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, P. R. China
| | - Chunhui Chen
- National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, P. R. China
| | - Jun Li
- National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, P. R. China
| | - Robert K. Moyzis
- Department of Biological Chemistry, University of California, Irvine, 92697, United States
| | - Antoine Bechara
- Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 90089, United States
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340
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The amygdala and decision-making. Neuropsychologia 2010; 49:760-6. [PMID: 20920513 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.09.029] [Citation(s) in RCA: 92] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2010] [Revised: 09/15/2010] [Accepted: 09/22/2010] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Decision-making is a complex process that requires the orchestration of multiple neural systems. For example, decision-making is believed to involve areas of the brain involved in emotion (e.g., amygdala, ventromedial prefrontal cortex) and memory (e.g., hippocampus, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex). In this article, we will present findings related to the amygdala's role in decision-making, and differentiate the contributions of the amygdala from those of other structurally and functionally connected neural regions. Decades of research have shown that the amygdala is involved in associating a stimulus with its emotional value. This tradition has been extended in newer work, which has shown that the amygdala is especially important for decision-making, by triggering autonomic responses to emotional stimuli, including monetary reward and punishment. Patients with amygdala damage lack these autonomic responses to reward and punishment, and consequently, cannot utilize "somatic marker" type cues to guide future decision-making. Studies using laboratory decision-making tests have found deficient decision-making in patients with bilateral amygdala damage, which resembles their real-world difficulties with decision-making. Additionally, we have found evidence for an interaction between sex and laterality of amygdala functioning, such that unilateral damage to the right amygdala results in greater deficits in decision-making and social behavior in men, while left amygdala damage seems to be more detrimental for women. We have posited that the amygdala is part of an "impulsive," habit type system that triggers emotional responses to immediate outcomes.
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341
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Xi C, Zhu Y, Niu C, Zhu C, Lee TMC, Tian Y, Wang K. Contributions of subregions of the prefrontal cortex to the theory of mind and decision making. Behav Brain Res 2010; 221:587-93. [PMID: 20934455 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2010.09.031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2010] [Revised: 07/21/2010] [Accepted: 09/24/2010] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Recent works have suggested an association between the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPC) and social cognition or decision making. The aim of this study is to investigate the theory of mind and decision making in patients with VMPC lesions and in those with dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPC) lesions. Patients with VMPC lesions (n=16) and those with DLPC lesions (n=14) were compared with healthy controls (HC) on faux pas recognition and 2 decision-making tasks. Consistent with previous data, patients with VMPC lesions performed worse on the theory of mind and decision making. Patients with DLPC lesions showed impairments of the theory of mind but performed at control levels on the 2 decision-making tasks. The results supported the view that a separation of function of 2 distinct subregions of the prefrontal cortex is important to the theory of mind and decision making.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chunhua Xi
- Department of Neurology, Third Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Huaihe Road 390, Hefei 230061, Anhui Province, China
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342
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Zald DH, Andreotti C. Neuropsychological assessment of the orbital and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Neuropsychologia 2010; 48:3377-91. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.08.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 124] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/21/2009] [Revised: 08/10/2010] [Accepted: 08/12/2010] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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343
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Grossman M, Eslinger PJ, Troiani V, Anderson C, Avants B, Gee JC, McMillan C, Massimo L, Khan A, Antani S. The role of ventral medial prefrontal cortex in social decisions: converging evidence from fMRI and frontotemporal lobar degeneration. Neuropsychologia 2010; 48:3505-12. [PMID: 20691197 PMCID: PMC2949451 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.07.036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 57] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/16/2010] [Revised: 06/29/2010] [Accepted: 07/27/2010] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
The ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) has been implicated in social and affectively influenced decision-making. Disease in this region may have clinical consequences for social judgments in patients with frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD). To test this hypothesis, regional cortical activation was monitored with fMRI while healthy adults judged the acceptability of brief social scenarios such as cutting into a movie ticket line or going through a red light at 2 AM. The scenarios described: (i) a socially neutral condition, (ii) a variant of each scenario containing a negatively valenced feature, and (iii) a variant containing a positively valenced feature. Results revealed that healthy adults activated vmPFC during judgments of negatively valenced scenarios relative to positive scenarios and neutral scenarios. In a comparative behavioral study, the same social decision-making paradigm was administered to patients with a social disorder due to FTLD. Patients differed significantly from healthy controls, specifically showing less sensitivity to negatively valenced features. Comparative anatomical analysis revealed considerable overlap of vmPFC activation in healthy adults and vmPFC cortical atrophy in FTLD patients. These converging results support the role of vmPFC in social decision-making where potentially negative consequences must be considered.
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Affiliation(s)
- Murray Grossman
- Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104-4283, USA.
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344
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Kishida KT, King-Casas B, Montague PR. Neuroeconomic approaches to mental disorders. Neuron 2010; 67:543-54. [PMID: 20797532 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2010.07.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 85] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/21/2010] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
The pervasiveness of decision-making in every area of human endeavor highlights the importance of understanding choice mechanisms and their detailed relationship to underlying neurobiological function. This review surveys the recent and productive application of game-theoretic probes (economic games) to mental disorders. Such games typically possess concrete concepts of optimal play, thus providing quantitative ways to track when subjects' choices match or deviate from optimal. This feature equips economic games with natural classes of control signals that should guide learning and choice in the agents that play them. These signals and their underlying physical correlates in the brain are now being used to generate objective biomarkers that may prove useful for exposing and understanding the neurogenetic basis of normal and pathological human cognition. Thus, game-theoretic probes represent some of the first steps toward producing computationally principled, objective measures of cognitive function and dysfunction useful for the diagnosis, treatment, and understanding of mental disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kenneth T Kishida
- Department of Neuroscience and Computational Psychiatry Unit, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
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345
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Wilson CRE, Gaffan D, Browning PGF, Baxter MG. Functional localization within the prefrontal cortex: missing the forest for the trees? Trends Neurosci 2010; 33:533-40. [PMID: 20864190 PMCID: PMC2997428 DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2010.08.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 69] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2010] [Revised: 08/06/2010] [Accepted: 08/07/2010] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Anatomical and functional studies of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) have identified multiple PFC subregions. We argue that the PFC is involved in cognitive functions exceeding the sum of specific functions attributed to its subregions. These can be revealed either by lesions of the whole PFC, or more specifically by selective disconnection of the PFC from certain types of information (for example, visual) allowing the investigation of PFC function in toto. Recent studies in macaque monkeys using the latter approach lead to a second conclusion: that the PFC, as a whole, could be fundamentally specialized for representing events that are extended in time. The representation of temporally complex events might underlie PFC involvement in general intelligence, decision-making, and executive function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Charles R E Wilson
- Stem Cell and Brain Research Institute, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale Unité 846, 18 avenue du Doyen Lépine, 69675 Cedex, Lyon, France
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346
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Perry JL, Joseph JE, Jiang Y, Zimmerman RS, Kelly TH, Darna M, Huettl P, Dwoskin LP, Bardo MT. Prefrontal cortex and drug abuse vulnerability: translation to prevention and treatment interventions. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2010; 65:124-49. [PMID: 20837060 DOI: 10.1016/j.brainresrev.2010.09.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 124] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2009] [Revised: 08/19/2010] [Accepted: 09/02/2010] [Indexed: 01/25/2023]
Abstract
Vulnerability to drug abuse is related to both reward seeking and impulsivity, two constructs thought to have a biological basis in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). This review addresses similarities and differences in neuroanatomy, neurochemistry and behavior associated with PFC function in rodents and humans. Emphasis is placed on monoamine and amino acid neurotransmitter systems located in anatomically distinct subregions: medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC); lateral prefrontal cortex (lPFC); anterior cingulate cortex (ACC); and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). While there are complex interconnections and overlapping functions among these regions, each is thought to be involved in various functions related to health-related risk behaviors and drug abuse vulnerability. Among the various functions implicated, evidence suggests that mPFC is involved in reward processing, attention and drug reinstatement; lPFC is involved in decision-making, behavioral inhibition and attentional gating; ACC is involved in attention, emotional processing and self-monitoring; and OFC is involved in behavioral inhibition, signaling of expected outcomes and reward/punishment sensitivity. Individual differences (e.g., age and sex) influence functioning of these regions, which, in turn, impacts drug abuse vulnerability. Implications for the development of drug abuse prevention and treatment strategies aimed at engaging PFC inhibitory processes that may reduce risk-related behaviors are discussed, including the design of effective public service announcements, cognitive exercises, physical activity, direct current stimulation, feedback control training and pharmacotherapies. A major challenge in drug abuse prevention and treatment rests with improving intervention strategies aimed at strengthening PFC inhibitory systems among at-risk individuals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer L Perry
- Center for Drug Abuse Research Translation, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40536-0509, USA
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347
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Abstract
Some decisions are made after obtaining several pieces of information, whereas others are reached quickly. Such differences may depend on the quality of information acquired, as well as individual variability in how cautiously evidence is evaluated. The current study examined neural activity while subjects accumulated sequential pieces of evidence and then made a decision. Uncertainty was updated with each piece of evidence, with individual ratings of subjective uncertainty characterizing underconfidence when observing evidence. Increased uncertainty during evidence accumulation was associated with activity in dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, whereas greater uncertainty when executing a decision uniquely elicited lateral frontal and parietal activity. Greater underconfidence when observing evidence correlated with activity in ventromedial prefrontal cortex. These results suggest that neural mechanisms of uncertainty depend on the stage of decision-making (belief updating vs decision) and that greater subjective uncertainty when evaluating evidence is associated with activity in ventromedial brain regions, even in the absence of overt risk.
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348
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Cox CL, Gotimer K, Roy AK, Castellanos FX, Milham MP, Kelly C. Your resting brain CAREs about your risky behavior. PLoS One 2010; 5:e12296. [PMID: 20808870 PMCID: PMC2924392 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0012296] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/28/2010] [Accepted: 07/23/2010] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Research on the neural correlates of risk-related behaviors and personality traits has provided insight into mechanisms underlying both normal and pathological decision-making. Task-based neuroimaging studies implicate a distributed network of brain regions in risky decision-making. What remains to be understood are the interactions between these regions and their relation to individual differences in personality variables associated with real-world risk-taking. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We employed resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (R-fMRI) and resting state functional connectivity (RSFC) methods to investigate differences in the brain's intrinsic functional architecture associated with beliefs about the consequences of risky behavior. We obtained an individual measure of expected benefit from engaging in risky behavior, indicating a risk seeking or risk-averse personality, for each of 21 participants from whom we also collected a series of R-fMRI scans. The expected benefit scores were entered in statistical models assessing the RSFC of brain regions consistently implicated in both the evaluation of risk and reward, and cognitive control (i.e., orbitofrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens, lateral prefrontal cortex, dorsal anterior cingulate). We specifically focused on significant brain-behavior relationships that were stable across R-fMRI scans collected one year apart. Two stable expected benefit-RSFC relationships were observed: decreased expected benefit (increased risk-aversion) was associated with 1) stronger positive functional connectivity between right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and right insula, and 2) weaker negative functional connectivity between left nucleus accumbens and right parieto-occipital cortex. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE Task-based activation in the IFG and insula has been associated with risk-aversion, while activation in the nucleus accumbens and parietal cortex has been associated with both risk seeking and risk-averse tendencies. Our results suggest that individual differences in attitudes toward risk-taking are reflected in the brain's functional architecture and may have implications for engaging in real-world risky behaviors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christine L Cox
- Phyllis Green and Randolph Cōwen Institute for Pediatric Neuroscience at the New York University Child Study Center, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, New York, United States of America
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349
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Menon D. Biological factors and brain imaging. Med Leg J 2010; 78:33-44; discussion 61-5. [PMID: 20687322 DOI: 10.1258/mlj.2010.010011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- David Menon
- Department of Anaesthesia, University of Cambridge
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350
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Lane SD, Steinberg JL, Ma L, Hasan KM, Kramer LA, Zuniga EA, Narayana PA, Moeller FG. Diffusion tensor imaging and decision making in cocaine dependence. PLoS One 2010; 5:e11591. [PMID: 20661285 PMCID: PMC2905416 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0011591] [Citation(s) in RCA: 85] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2010] [Accepted: 06/18/2010] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Chronic stimulant abuse is associated with both impairment in decision making and structural abnormalities in brain gray and white matter. Recent data suggest these structural abnormalities may be related to functional impairment in important behavioral processes. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS In 15 cocaine-dependent and 18 control subjects, we examined relationships between decision-making performance on the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and white matter integrity as measured by diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Whole brain voxelwise analyses showed that, relative to controls, the cocaine group had lower fractional anisotropy (FA) and higher mean of the second and third eigenvalues (lambda perpendicular) in frontal and parietal white matter regions and the corpus callosum. Cocaine subjects showed worse performance on the IGT, notably over the last 40 trials. Importantly, FA and lambda perpendicular values in these regions showed a significant relationship with IGT performance on the last 40 trials. CONCLUSIONS Compromised white matter integrity in cocaine dependence may be related to functional impairments in decision making.
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Affiliation(s)
- Scott D Lane
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas, United States of America.
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