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Li Z, Duan R, Guo Y, Li P, Warren CM. Distinct influence of inter- versus intra-trial feedback on the brain response to subsequent feedback: Evidence from event-related potentials. Biol Psychol 2023; 181:108596. [PMID: 37268264 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2023.108596] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/24/2022] [Revised: 05/10/2023] [Accepted: 05/30/2023] [Indexed: 06/04/2023]
Abstract
Substantial evidence indicates that feedback processing not only varies with the valence of feedback, but is also highly dependent on contextual factors. Even so, the influence of prior outcome history on current outcome evaluation is far from clear. To investigate this issue, we conducted two event-related potential (ERP) experiments using a modified gambling task whereby each trial was associated with two consequences. In experiment 1, two instances of feedback indicated participant performance on two dimensions of a single decision, within a trial. In experiment 2, participants made two decisions in each trial, and then received two instances of feedback. We examined the feedback-related negativity (FRN) as an index of feedback processing. When both instances of feedback were relevant to the same trial (intra-trial), the FRN to the second was affected by the valence of the immediately previous feedback: The FRN was amplified to losses following wins. This was observed in both experiment 1 and experiment 2. When two instances of feedback were relevant to two different trials (inter-trial), the effect of immediately previous feedback on the FRN was inconsistent. In experiment 1 there was no effect of feedback from the previous trial on the FRN. However, in Experiment 2 there was an effect of inter-trial feedback on the FRN that was opposite to the effect of intra-trial feedback: The FRN was amplified when losses followed losses. Taken together, the findings suggest that the neural systems involved in reward processing dynamically and continuously integrate preceding feedback for the evaluation of present feedback.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhurong Li
- Brain Function and Psychological Science Research Center Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
| | - Ran Duan
- Brain Function and Psychological Science Research Center Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
| | - Yiming Guo
- Brain Function and Psychological Science Research Center Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
| | - Peng Li
- Brain Function and Psychological Science Research Center Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China; Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Affective and Social Cognitive Science Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China.
| | - Christopher M Warren
- Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services Utah State University, USA
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2
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Stewardson HJ, Sambrook TD. Reward, Salience, and Agency in Event-Related Potentials for Appetitive and Aversive Contexts. Cereb Cortex 2021; 31:5006-5014. [PMID: 34023899 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab137] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2021] [Revised: 03/31/2021] [Accepted: 04/23/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Cognitive architectures tasked with swiftly and adaptively processing biologically important events are likely to classify these on two central axes: motivational salience, that is, those events' importance and unexpectedness, and motivational value, the utility they hold, relative to that expected. Because of its temporal precision, electroencephalography provides an opportunity to resolve processes associated with these two axes. A focus of attention for the last two decades has been the feedback-related negativity (FRN), a frontocentral component occurring 240-340 ms after valenced events that are not fully predicted. Both motivational salience and value are present in such events and competing claims have been made for which of these is encoded by the FRN. The present study suggests that motivational value, in the form of a reward prediction error, is the primary determinant of the FRN in active contexts, while in both passive and active contexts, a weaker and earlier overlapping motivational salience component may be present.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Thomas D Sambrook
- School of Psychology, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
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3
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Ribordy Lambert F, Wicht CA, Mouthon M, Spierer L. Acute alcohol intoxication and expectations reshape the spatiotemporal functional architecture of executive control. Neuroimage 2020; 215:116811. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116811] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/25/2019] [Revised: 12/13/2019] [Accepted: 03/24/2020] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
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4
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Schiller B, Domes G, Heinrichs M. Oxytocin changes behavior and spatio-temporal brain dynamics underlying inter-group conflict in humans. Eur Neuropsychopharmacol 2020; 31:119-130. [PMID: 31883637 DOI: 10.1016/j.euroneuro.2019.12.109] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/19/2019] [Revised: 11/15/2019] [Accepted: 12/08/2019] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
Inter-group conflicts drive human discrimination, mass migration, and violence, but their psychobiological mechanisms remain largely unknown. Here, we investigated whether the neuropeptide oxytocin modulates behavior and spatio-temporal brain dynamics in naturalistic inter-group conflict. Eighty-six male members of natural rival social groups received either oxytocin or placebo intranasally. In a decision-making paradigm involving real monetary stakes, participants could sacrifice their own resources to modulate the monetary gains and losses of in- and out-group members. Oxytocin eliminated the reduction in out-group gains - particularly in individuals with low emotional empathy, whereas those given placebo exhibited this negative social behavior. Our spatio-temporal analysis of event-related potentials elicited by outcome valuation revealed that oxytocin replaced a neurophysiological process associated with the negative valuation of out-group gains via a process associated with positive valuation between 200-500ms after outcome presentation. Oxytocin thus seems to modulate inter-group behavior in humans via a specific alteration of valuation-related brain dynamics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bastian Schiller
- Department of Psychology, Laboratory for Biological and Personality Psychology, University of Freiburg, D-79104 Freiburg, Germany; Freiburg Brain Imaging Center, University Medical Center, University of Freiburg, D-79106 Freiburg, Germany.
| | - Gregor Domes
- Department of Psychology, Laboratory for Biological and Personality Psychology, University of Freiburg, D-79104 Freiburg, Germany; Freiburg Brain Imaging Center, University Medical Center, University of Freiburg, D-79106 Freiburg, Germany; Department of Biological and Clinical Psychology, University of Trier, D-54290 Trier, Germany
| | - Markus Heinrichs
- Department of Psychology, Laboratory for Biological and Personality Psychology, University of Freiburg, D-79104 Freiburg, Germany; Freiburg Brain Imaging Center, University Medical Center, University of Freiburg, D-79106 Freiburg, Germany.
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5
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Dissociating the contributions of reward-prediction errors to trial-level adaptation and long-term learning. Biol Psychol 2020; 149:107775. [DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2019.107775] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2019] [Revised: 09/23/2019] [Accepted: 09/23/2019] [Indexed: 01/23/2023]
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6
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Paul K, Vassena E, Severo MC, Pourtois G. Dissociable effects of reward magnitude on fronto‐medial theta and FRN during performance monitoring. Psychophysiology 2019; 57:e13481. [DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13481] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2019] [Revised: 08/09/2019] [Accepted: 08/16/2019] [Indexed: 01/20/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Katharina Paul
- Cognitive & Affective Psychophysiology Laboratory Department of Experimental, Clinical, and Health Psychology Ghent University Ghent Belgium
| | - Eliana Vassena
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour Radboud University Nijmegen Nijmegen The Netherlands
| | - Mario Carlo Severo
- Cognitive & Affective Psychophysiology Laboratory Department of Experimental, Clinical, and Health Psychology Ghent University Ghent Belgium
| | - Gilles Pourtois
- Cognitive & Affective Psychophysiology Laboratory Department of Experimental, Clinical, and Health Psychology Ghent University Ghent Belgium
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7
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Sallard E, Hartmann L, Ptak R, Spierer L. Spatiotemporal brain dynamics underlying attentional bias modifications. Int J Psychophysiol 2018; 130:29-39. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2018.06.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2018] [Revised: 04/25/2018] [Accepted: 06/04/2018] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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8
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Zhao Q, Li H, Hu B, Wu H, Liu Q. Abstinent Heroin Addicts Tend to Take Risks: ERP and Source Localization. Front Neurosci 2017; 11:681. [PMID: 29270107 PMCID: PMC5723666 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2017.00681] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2017] [Accepted: 11/21/2017] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Abnormal decision making is a behavioral characteristic of drug addiction. Indeed, drug addicts prefer immediate rewards at the expense of future interests. Assessing the neurocognitive basis of decision-making related to drug dependence, combining event-related potential (ERP) analysis and source localization techniques, may provide new insights into understanding decision-making deficits in drug addicts and further guide withdrawal treatment. In this study, EEG was performed in 20 abstinent heroin addicts (AHAs) and 20 age-, education- and gender-matched healthy controls (HCs) while they participated in a simple two-choice gambling task (99 vs. 9). Our behavioral results showed that AHAs tend to select higher-risk choices compared with HCs (i.e., more "99" choices than "9"). ERP results showed that right hemisphere preponderance of stimulus-preceding negativity was disrupted in AHAs, but not in HCs. Feedback-related negativity of difference wave was higher in AHAs than HCs, with the P300 amplitude associated with risk magnitude and valence. Using source localization that allows identification of abnormal brain activity in consequential cognitive stages, including the reward expectation and outcome evaluation stages, we found abnormalities in both behavioral and neural responses on gambling in AHAs. Taken together, our findings suggest AHAs have risk-prone tendency and dysfunction in adaptive decision making, since they continue to choose risky options even after accruing considerable negative scores, and fail to shift to a safer strategy to avoid risk. Such abnormal decision-making bias to risk and immediate reward seeking may be accompanied by abnormal reward expectation and evaluation in AHAs, which explains their high risk-seeking and impulsivity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qinglin Zhao
- Ubiquitous Awareness and Intelligent Solutions Lab, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China
| | - Hongqian Li
- Ubiquitous Awareness and Intelligent Solutions Lab, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China
| | - Bin Hu
- Ubiquitous Awareness and Intelligent Solutions Lab, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China
| | - Haiyan Wu
- Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Quanying Liu
- Movement Control & Neuroplasticity Research Group, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.,Neural Control of Movement Laboratory, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
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10
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Cao J, Gu R, Bi X, Zhu X, Wu H. Unexpected Acceptance? Patients with Social Anxiety Disorder Manifest their Social Expectancy in ERPs During Social Feedback Processing. Front Psychol 2015; 6:1745. [PMID: 26635659 PMCID: PMC4644791 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01745] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2015] [Accepted: 10/30/2015] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous studies on social anxiety have demonstrated negative-expectancy bias in social contexts. In this study, we used a paradigm that employed self-relevant positive or negative social feedback, in order to test whether this negative expectancy manifests in event-related potentials (ERPs) during social evaluation among socially anxious individuals. Behavioral data revealed that individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD) showed more negative expectancy of peer acceptance both in the experiment and in daily life than did the healthy control participants. Regarding ERP results, we found a overally larger P2 for positive social feedback and also a group main effect, such that the P2 was smaller in SAD group. SAD participants demonstrated a larger feedback-related negativity (FRN) to positive feedback than to negative feedback. In addition, SAD participants showed a more positive ΔFRN (ΔFRN = negative – positive). Furthermore, acceptance expectancy in daily life correlated negatively with ΔFRN amplitude, while the Interaction Anxiousness Scale (IAS) score correlated positively with the ΔFRN amplitude. Finally, the acceptance expectancy in daily life fully mediated the relationship between the IAS and ΔFRN. These results indicated that both groups could differentiate between positive and negative social feedback in the early stage of social feedback processing (reflected on the P2). However, the SAD group exhibited a larger FRN to positive social feedback than to negative social feedback, demonstrating their dysfunction in the late stage of social feedback processing. In our opinion, such dysfunction is due to their greater negative social feedback expectancy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jianqin Cao
- Department of Nursing, Harbin Medical University Daqing, China
| | - Ruolei Gu
- Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing, China
| | - Xuejing Bi
- Department of Nursing, Harbin Medical University Daqing, China
| | - Xiangru Zhu
- Institute of Cognition and Behavior, Henan University Kaifeng, China
| | - Haiyan Wu
- Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing, China
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11
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Quantifying the time for accurate EEG decoding of single value-based decisions. J Neurosci Methods 2015; 250:114-25. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2014.09.029] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2014] [Revised: 09/25/2014] [Accepted: 09/25/2014] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
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12
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The impact of perceived quality on online buying decisions: an event-related potentials perspective. Neuroreport 2014; 25:1091-8. [PMID: 25037004 DOI: 10.1097/wnr.0000000000000233] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Consumer neuroscience can provide useful insights into the neural foundations of consumer decisions, such as perceived quality. One of the applications is to guide attribute configuration of products to fit consumers' expectations on the basis of individual preferences. In this study, we required 20 participants to decide whether to buy the product provided in the stimuli and to respond as soon as possible. According to their reports of expectations after the experiment, we subdivided the stimuli into two conditions. Condition 1 contained the stimuli that fit individual preferences, whereas Condition 2 contained the other stimuli. An essential component of event-related potentials (ERPs), the P300, was elicited in the two conditions and distributed over almost all parietal and occipital regions. Products in Condition 1 induced a higher P300 amplitude than those in Condition 2. The results show that evaluating product attributes is a cognitive process that modulates attention in the aforementioned regions. When participants evaluate the alternatives, categorical processing occurred on the basis of similarity judgment. The situation in Condition 1 produced a similarity overlap between the product and the expectation and resulted in a higher P300. Otherwise, there was no overlap, leading to a smaller P300. Hence, the P300 may be a useful neural endogenous indicator for measuring consumers' evaluations of products in marketing research.
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13
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Repeated Exposure to “meaningless” Pseudowords Modulates LPC, but Not N(FN)400. Brain Topogr 2014; 28:838-51. [DOI: 10.1007/s10548-014-0403-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2014] [Accepted: 09/19/2014] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
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14
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Mediofrontal event-related potentials in response to positive, negative and unsigned prediction errors. Neuropsychologia 2014; 61:1-10. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2014.06.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2014] [Revised: 06/05/2014] [Accepted: 06/06/2014] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
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15
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Morie KP, De Sanctis P, Foxe JJ. Reward contingencies and the recalibration of task monitoring and reward systems: a high-density electrical mapping study. Neuroscience 2014; 273:100-17. [PMID: 24836852 PMCID: PMC4209734 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2014.05.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2014] [Revised: 05/02/2014] [Accepted: 05/02/2014] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
Task execution almost always occurs in the context of reward-seeking or punishment-avoiding behavior. As such, ongoing task-monitoring systems are influenced by reward anticipation systems. In turn, when a task has been executed either successfully or unsuccessfully, future iterations of that task will be re-titrated on the basis of the task outcome. Here, we examined the neural underpinnings of the task-monitoring and reward-evaluation systems to better understand how they govern reward-seeking behavior. Twenty-three healthy adult participants performed a task where they accrued points that equated to real world value (gift cards) by responding as rapidly as possible within an allotted timeframe, while success rate was titrated online by changing the duration of the timeframe dependent on participant performance. Informative cues initiated each trial, indicating the probability of potential reward or loss (four levels from very low to very high). We manipulated feedback by first informing participants of task success/failure, after which a second feedback signal indicated actual magnitude of reward/loss. High-density electroencephalography (EEG) recordings allowed for examination of event-related potentials (ERPs) to the informative cues and in turn, to both feedback signals. Distinct ERP components associated with reward cues, task-preparatory and task-monitoring processes, and reward feedback processes were identified. Unsurprisingly, participants displayed increased ERP amplitudes associated with task-preparatory processes following cues that predicted higher chances of reward. They also rapidly updated reward and loss prediction information dependent on task performance after the first feedback signal. Finally, upon reward receipt, initial reward probability was no longer taken into account. Rather, ERP measures suggested that only the magnitude of actual reward or loss was now processed. Reward and task-monitoring processes are clearly dissociable, but interact across very fast timescales to update reward predictions as information about task success or failure is accrued. Careful delineation of these processes will be useful in future investigations in clinical groups where such processes are suspected of having gone awry.
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Affiliation(s)
- K P Morie
- The Sheryl and Daniel R. Tishman Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory, Children's Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center (CERC), Department of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine & Montefiore Medical Center, Van Etten Building, Wing 1C, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461, USA; Program in Cognitive Neuroscience, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA; The Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory at the Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY 10962, USA
| | - P De Sanctis
- The Sheryl and Daniel R. Tishman Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory, Children's Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center (CERC), Department of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine & Montefiore Medical Center, Van Etten Building, Wing 1C, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461, USA; Program in Cognitive Neuroscience, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA; The Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory at the Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY 10962, USA
| | - J J Foxe
- The Sheryl and Daniel R. Tishman Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory, Children's Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center (CERC), Department of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine & Montefiore Medical Center, Van Etten Building, Wing 1C, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461, USA; Program in Cognitive Neuroscience, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA; The Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience, Rose F. Kennedy Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1410 Pelham Parkway South, Bronx, NY 10461, USA; The Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory at the Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY 10962, USA.
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Pfabigan DM, Zeiler M, Lamm C, Sailer U. Blocked versus randomized presentation modes differentially modulate feedback-related negativity and P3b amplitudes. Clin Neurophysiol 2013; 125:715-726. [PMID: 24144779 PMCID: PMC3947619 DOI: 10.1016/j.clinph.2013.09.029] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2013] [Revised: 09/13/2013] [Accepted: 09/21/2013] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
ERP responses to feedback stimuli with explicit or assigned valence information were investigated with blocked or randomized trial presentation modes. Only P3b, but not feedback-related negativity amplitudes were affected by feedback type for both presentation modes. Results suggest using blocked design when using different types of feedback stimuli.
Objective Electrophysiological studies on feedback processing typically use a wide range of feedback stimuli which might not always be comparable. The current study investigated whether two indicators of feedback processing – feedback-related negativity (FRN) and P3b – differ for feedback stimuli with explicit (facial expressions) or assigned valence information (symbols). In addition, we assessed whether presenting feedback in either a trial-by-trial or a block-wise fashion affected these ERPs. Methods EEG was recorded in three experiments while participants performed a time estimation task and received two different types of performance feedback. Results Only P3b amplitudes varied consistently in response to feedback type for both presentation types. Moreover, the blocked feedback type presentation yielded more distinct FRN peaks, higher effect sizes, and a significant relation between FRN amplitudes and behavioral task performance measures. Conclusion Both stimulus type and presentation mode may provoke systematic changes in feedback-related ERPs. The current findings point at important potential confounds that need to be controlled for when designing FRN or P3b studies. Significance Studies investigating P3b amplitudes using mixed types of stimuli have to be interpreted with caution. Furthermore, we suggest implementing a blocked presentation format when presenting different feedback types within the same experiment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniela M Pfabigan
- Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Liebiggasse 5, A-1010 Vienna, Austria.
| | - Michael Zeiler
- Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Liebiggasse 5, A-1010 Vienna, Austria
| | - Claus Lamm
- Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Liebiggasse 5, A-1010 Vienna, Austria
| | - Uta Sailer
- Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Liebiggasse 5, A-1010 Vienna, Austria; Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Haraldsgatan 1, SE-40530 Gothenburg, Sweden
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Alexopoulos J, Pfabigan DM, Lamm C, Bauer H, Fischmeister FPS. Do we care about the powerless third? An ERP study of the three-person ultimatum game. Front Hum Neurosci 2012; 6:59. [PMID: 22470328 PMCID: PMC3314260 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2012.00059] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/30/2011] [Accepted: 03/05/2012] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent years have provided increasing insights into the factors affecting economic decision-making. Little is known about how these factors influence decisions that also bear consequences for other people. We examined whether decisions that also affected a third, passive player modulate the behavioral and neural responses to monetary offers in a modified version of the three-person ultimatum game. We aimed to elucidate to what extent social preferences affect early neuronal processing when subjects were evaluating offers that were fair or unfair to themselves, to the third player, or to both. As an event-related potential (ERP) index for early evaluation processes in economic decision-making, we recorded the medial frontal negativity (MFN) component in response to such offers. Unfair offers were rejected more often than equitable ones, in particular when negatively affecting the subject. While the MFN amplitude was higher following unfair as compared to fair offers to the subject, MFN amplitude was not modulated by the shares assigned to the third, passive player. Furthermore, rejection rates and MFN amplitudes following fair offers were positively correlated, as subjects showing lower MFN amplitudes following fair offers tended to reject unfair offers more often—but only if those offers negatively affected their own payoff. Altogether, the rejection behavior suggests that humans mainly care about a powerless third when they are confronted with inequality as well. The correlation between rejection rates and the MFN amplitude supports the notion that this ERP component is also modulated by positive events and highlights how our expectations concerning other humans' behavior guide our own decisions. However, social preferences like inequality aversion and concern for the well-being of others are not reflected in this early neuronal response, but seem to result from later, deliberate and higher-order cognitive processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Johanna Alexopoulos
- Faculty of Psychology, Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, University of Vienna Vienna, Austria
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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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