The delay effect on outcome evaluation: results from an event-related potential study

Contextual valence influences the neural dynamics of time and magnitude representation during feedback evaluation

Contextual valence is an important dimension during value-based decision-making. Previous research has revealed behavioral and neural asymmetries between the gain context and the loss context. The present event-related potential study investigated the effects of contextual valence on neural dynamics underlying magnitude and time, two important reward dimensions, during feedback evaluation. Forty-two participants performed a simple guessing task in which they experienced both a gain context wherein high or low rewards were delivered immediately or six months later, and a loss context wherein high or low losses were delivered in the same way. Results showed that in the gain context, time and magnitude information were processed in a parallel way during the time windows of the reward positivity (RewP) and the P3. In the loss context, however, time and magnitude information were processed in a serial way such that time information was encoded during the RewP and P3 periods, whereas magnitude information was not tracked until the time window of the late positive potential. Our findings suggest that the neural dynamics underlying time and magnitude information are distinct between the gain and loss contexts, thus providing a novel perspective for the well-known gain-loss asymmetry.

Electrophysiological correlates of third-party punishment: ERP study

Human societies benefit from social norms that increase cooperation and support social order. Hence, the understanding of effective mechanisms enforcing norms is crucial. One of such mechanisms is "third-party punishment" (TPP) - a form of social punishment that could be delivered by a third-party, not directly affected by the actions of the norm violator. Previous electrophysiological studies (ERP) reported that perceived violations of norms evoked the medial frontal negativity in third-parties. The current study further probed the link between the medial frontal negativity (MFN) and actual TPP of norm violation, as it was not shown directly before. Participants played a dictator game as third-parties, being able to select different levels of punishment of an unfair violator's decisions. We replicated previous findings and showed the amplitude of the MFN correlated with the intensity of TPP (Fz, r = -0.516, p = 0.034, FCz, r = -0.509; p = 0.037). Overall, our findings further support the direct link between the MFN and the intensity of TPP.

A delay-specific neural indicator corresponds to delay-discounting behavior for both gain and loss

OBJECTIVES

Delay-discounting, wherein the subjective value for delayed gain or loss decreases, has been attracting much attention from the social sciences as well as neuroscience and has been suggested asbeing related to reward processing in the brain. As reported, the feedback-related negativity (FRN), an electrophysiological measure of reward processing, increased by delayed-monetary gain and ΔFRN, which is the difference in FRNs for loss and gain at a certain time point, had no significant correlation with delay-discounting for gain. Thus, although a delay for gain could affect FRN, it is unclear whether FRN capturing such a delay effect has a direct relationship with delay-discounting in both gain and loss domains.

METHODS

In this study, we introduced a delay-specific indicator, ΔFRNdelay, that is, the difference between FRN with and without delays, and investigated its direct relationship during the doors task with the discounting rate measured by the delay-discounting task in both the gain and loss domains.

RESULTS

We found that, for loss, the delay enhanced FRN, whereas no such effect was observed for gains, and that this indicator was significantly correlated with delay-discounting in both domains.

CONCLUSIONS

To our knowledge, this study is the first to suggest that FRN is sensitive to the effects of delay in losses on reward processing and that the new indicator directly corresponds to changes in subjective value as measured by delay-discounting.

Effects of subjective and objective task difficulties for feedback- related brain potentials in social situations: An electroencephalogram study

In this study, the relationship between two types of feedback task difficulties and feedback-related brain potentials, such as feedback-related negativity (FRN), reward positivity (RewP), and P300, was investigated in social situations where participants performed a task simultaneously by a pair. The electroencephalogram activity was measured while participants answered four-choice questions with their partners. Participants were informed about the general accuracy rate of the question (objective task difficulty) before responding to the questionnaire. The feedback outcome was definitely correct when the participants had the knowledge to answer the questions correctly. Therefore, the subjective task difficulty depended on the knowledge of the participant and differed from the objective task difficulty. In the task, the participants selected the choice they deemed correct. Before checking the answers, participants responded to the preceding question's subjective task difficulty. As one of the social factors, the task consisted of two types of conditions: one, in which one's response affected partner's reward, and another, in which it did not. The second social factor was the order of feedback outcomes; in our experiment, these outcomes were presented sequentially to pairs of participants. The effects of subjective and objective task difficulties and social factors on feedback-related brain potentials were comprehensively analyzed. The study showed that subjective task difficulty sensitively modulated the amplitude of gain-related P300, suggesting that it is sensitive to modulation in the allocation of attentional resources to own feedback outcome. The objective task difficulty sensitively modulated the amplitude of RewP after receiving the partner's incorrect feedback outcome. RewP was more sensitive to positive affective valence, such as feelings of superiority over the partner, than to task-dependent rewards received by the participants themselves. In contrast, FRN was more negative in the joint condition than in the individual condition, suggesting sensitivity to social responsibility felt by participants toward their partners.

Intertemporal preference reversals are associated with early activation of insula and sustained preferential processing of immediate rewards in visual cortex

Decision makers tend to give magnified significance to immediately available rewards which leads to intertemporal preference reversals, which is a form of self-control failure. The objective of the present study was to understand the cognitive and neural underpinnings of this phenomenon using event-related potentials (ERP) and their source localization using standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography analysis (sLORETA). Twenty-four participants performed a money choice task, where they made choices between a smaller-sooner and a larger-later reward, which included trials with and without an immediately available option, while their electroencephalography (EEG) activity was recorded. Trials with and without immediacy were identical except that the latter involved a front-end delay added to both the rewards. Results showed that presence of immediacy made the choices significantly more impulsive. Presence of immediate reward elicited larger visual P2 and late positive potential (LPP), indicating enhanced capture of automatic and sustained attention respectively, and smaller N2, indicative of diminished engagement of cognitive control processes. Source localization revealed increased activity in the visual cortex in the presence of immediacy, signifying higher valuation. Higher activation of areas of insula during P2-suggesting increased awareness of visceral signals-predicted larger impulsive preference reversals. The results suggest that presence of immediate reward biases the choice very early during the decision making process by precipitating visceral states that triggers approach behaviour, and highlight the need to adopt strategies like precommitment to counter the effect.

Effect of uncertainty-dependent residential mobility on loss aversion

The current research aimed to examine the relationship between residential mobility and loss aversion, a ubiquitous decision-making bias conceptualized in prospect theory. Combining correlational, experimental, and electroencephalography approaches, we tested the hypothesis that residential mobility may increase loss aversion. The results revealed a positive correlation between residential mobility and loss aversion (Study 1). These effects were moderated by individuals' residential mobility/stability mindsets. Behaviorally, we observed a positive association between residential mobility history and loss aversion among individuals with a high (vs. low) subjective uncertainty after manipulating their residential mobility mindset by priming them with a mobile or stable lifestyle (Study 2). On the neural level, we found that the mindset of residential mobility (vs. stability) enhanced the differential feedback-related negativity (FRN) modulations between the large-win and large-loss conditions among Chinese participants with a high subjective uncertainty (Study 3). In conclusion, residential mobility elevated loss aversion by enhancing feelings of subjective uncertainty. Our findings provide novel insights into how changes in the socioecological environment shape individuals' decision-making bias.

The Effect of Social Distance on Intertemporal Choice of Reward Processing: An Event-Related Potentials Study

Social factors can affect the processing of intertemporal choice, but the influence of social distance on the rewarding process of intertemporal choice is unclear. Therefore, by designing a novel cognitive resource competition paradigm for undifferentiated intertemporal choice, this article aims to explore the influence of social distance on intertemporal choice reward processing at the electrophysiological level. It was found that compared with the stranger condition, P3a is greater in the friend condition, which means social distance is evaluated in the early stage. In addition, different brain regions in the early stages are taking charge of processing the soon-but-small (SS) and later-but-lager (LL) reward in intertemporal choice. There is an interaction effect between social distance (friend vs. stranger) and intertemporal choice (SS reward vs. LL reward) on P3b. Under friend conditions, the P3b induced by LL reward is more positive than SS reward. Under the condition of choosing the LL reward, the P3b induced by friend is more positive than stranger. This result shows that in the latter stage of reward processing, the evaluation process of time discounting is less sensitive in LL reward for friend caused by lack of cognitive resources which is occupied when dealing with social distance in advance, and thus the degree of time discount was reduced. These findings demonstrate that P3b is the key index of time discounting and immediate and delayed rewards are valued in different brain regions.

Temporal Fluctuation of Mood in Gaming Task Modulates Feedback Negativity: EEG Study With Virtual Reality

Feedback outcomes are generally classified into positive and negative feedback. People often predict a feedback outcome with information that is based on both objective facts and uncertain subjective information, such as a mood. For example, if an action leads to good results consecutively, people performing the action overestimate the behavioral result of the next action. In electroencephalogram measurements, negative feedback evokes negative potential, called feedback negativity, and positive feedback evokes positive potential, called reward positivity. The present study investigated the relationship between the degree of the mood caused by the feedback outcome and the error-related brain potentials. We measured the electroencephalogram activity while the participants played a virtual reality shooting game. The experimental task was to shoot down a cannonball flying toward the player using a handgun. The task difficulty was determined from the size and curve of the flying cannonball. These gaming parameters affected the outcome probability of shooting the target in the game. We also implemented configurations in the game, such as the player’s life points and play times. These configurations affected the outcome magnitude of shooting the target in the game. Moreover, we used the temporal accuracy of shooting in the game as the parameter of the mood. We investigated the relationship between these experimental features and the event-related potentials using the single-trial-based linear mixed-effects model analysis. The feedback negativity was observed at an error trial, and its amplitude was modulated with the outcome probability and the mood. Conversely, reward positivity was observed at hit trials, but its amplitude was modulated with the outcome probability and outcome magnitude. This result suggests that feedback negativity is enhanced according to not only the feedback probability but also the mood that was changed depending on the temporal gaming outcome.

Dissociating the effect of reward uncertainty and timing uncertainty on neural indices of reward prediction errors: A reward positivity (RewP) event-related potential (ERP) study

Accurate reward predictions include forecasting both what a reward will be and when a reward will occur. We tested how variations in the certainty of reward outcome and certainty in timing of feedback presentation modulate neural indices of reward prediction errors using the reward positivity (RewP) component of the scalp-recorded brain event-related potential (ERP). In a within-subjects design, seventy-three healthy individuals completed two versions of a cued doors task; one cued the probability of a reward outcome while the other cued the probability of a delay before feedback. Replicating previous results, RewP amplitude was larger for uncertain feedback compared to certain feedback. Additionally, RewP amplitude was differentially associated with uncertainty of presence/absence of reward, but not uncertainty of feedback timing. Findings suggest a dissociation in that RewP amplitude is modulated by reward prediction certainty but is less affected by certainty surrounding timing of feedback.

The reward positivity reflects the integrated value of temporally threefold-layered decision outcomes

In reinforcement learning, adaptive behavior depends on the ability to predict future outcomes based on previous decisions. The Reward Positivity (RewP) is thought to encode reward prediction errors in the anterior midcingulate cortex (aMCC) whenever these predictions are violated. Although the RewP has been extensively studied in the context of simple binary (win vs. loss) reward processing, recent studies suggest that the RewP scales complex feedback in a fine graded fashion. The aim of this study was to replicate and extend previous findings that the RewP reflects the integrated sum of instantaneous and delayed consequences of a singular outcome by increasing the feedback information content by a third temporal dimension. We used a complex reinforcement-learning task where each option was associated with an immediate, intermediate and delayed monetary outcome and analyzed the RewP in the time domain as well as fronto-medial theta power in the time-frequency domain. To test if the RewP sensitivity to the three outcome dimensions reflect stable trait-like individual differences in reward processing, a retesting session took place 3 months later. The results confirm that the RewP reflects the integrated value of complex temporally extended consequences in a stable manner, albeit there was no relation to behavioral choice. Our findings indicate that the medial frontal cortex receives fine graded information about complex action outcomes that, however, may not necessarily translate to cognitive or behavioral control processes.

Residential mobility mindset enhances temporal discounting in the loss framework

With the internationalization of human society, population mobility has greatly increased, which can affect people's psychological states and behaviors. Research on residential mobility is burgeoning, but few studies have linked this topic to decision making, particularly temporal discounting, in which individuals generally discount future gains and losses. In Study 1, we manipulated individuals' residential mobility and stability and found that residential mobility heightened temporal discounting. In Study 2, which was designed to investigate the neural mechanism underlying this relationship, the participants gambled between two pictures and received temporal-related feedback, including gain and loss, while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. The results showed that the main effect of temporal discounting was reflected in the feedback-related negativity (FRN) component in the 180-340 ms time window. Additionally, the participants primed with mobility rather than stability exhibited a significant difference in FRN over the right-central electrodes between present and future large-amount losses but not between present and future large-amount or small-amount gains. Study 3 revealed that residential mobility increased the participant's sense of uncertainty, thereby enhancing temporal discounting. In conclusion, the current research reveals that residential mobility enhances temporal discounting by modulating the neural processes involved in evaluating monetary loss and by increasing the individual's sense of uncertainty. This research suggests that socioecological factors play important roles in individuals' intertemporal decisions.

Electrophysiological Mechanisms Underlying Time-Dependent Assessments in Moral Decision-Making

Human decision-making that involves moral dilemmas is a complex process, as individuals try to adhere to their moral values while their actual decisions can be influenced by several situational constraints. When facing a moral conflict that can bring a gain or loss for a decision-maker but a corresponding loss or gain for others, the decision-maker’s choice of resolution strategy lies in its relating to gain-loss asymmetry by placing greater utility weight on his or her immediate gains and delayed losses. Although many neuroimaging studies have unveiled the neural mechanisms that underlie moral decision-making, little attention has been paid to the temporal dynamics of how a decision-maker assesses utility weights differently for a moral (or adaptive) choice that will bring loss (or gain) to himself (and others) when the outcome will be realized in the near versus distant future. This study identifies the electrophysiological mechanisms of time-dependent assessment in individuals’ moral conflict resolution strategies. Twenty-two participants were given a set of moral dilemmas with time intervals that varied from the near future to the distant future. Participants chose between two conflicting options: a self-interest-seeking immoral choice (adaptive) and a principled moral choice (moral). Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded, and movement-related potentials (MRPs) were analyzed by being response-locked to individual moral choices. Behavioral results showed that participants took more time to respond and were more likely to make adaptive choices under the near-future condition. When the participants faced moral dilemmas, their brain waves manifested medial frontal negativity (MFN) at early stage ERP of 200–400 ms, possibly reflecting an internal moral conflict. Participants then exhibited larger late positive potentials (LPP) under the near-future condition. In addition, greater effort in implementing motor preparation was found under the near-future condition than under the distant future condition, as supported by the larger Bereitschaftspotential (BP) in the anterior areas. Our results illustrate the temporal dynamics of the electrophysiological mechanisms that underlie time-dependent assessments in moral decision-making, as human brains discount the decision utility of the moral outcomes that will occur in the distant future.

Hypomania and depression associated with distinct neural activity for immediate and future rewards

Bipolar spectrum and unipolar depressive disorders have been associated with distinct and opposite profiles of reward-related neural activity. These opposite profiles may reflect a differential preexisting vulnerability for both types of disorders. In support, recent ERP studies find that, following reward feedback, a larger reward positivity (RewP) is associated with greater vulnerability for bipolar spectrum disorders, whereas a smaller RewP is associated with greater vulnerability for depression. However, prior studies have investigated only immediate rewards and have not examined dimensions of both bipolar disorder and unipolar depression within the same sample. The present study is the first to investigate feedback-related ERP correlates of proneness to hypomania and unipolar depressive tendencies within the same sample and to expand our scope to include future rewards. Participants completed a modified time estimation task where the same monetary reward was available immediately or at one of five different future dates. Results revealed proneness to hypomania and unipolar depressive tendencies were related to an elevated and blunted RewP, respectively, but only following immediate rewards (i.e., today). Following rewards in the distant future (e.g., 8 months), proneness to hypomania and depressive tendencies were associated with elevated and blunted amplitudes for the P3, respectively, a subsequent ERP component reflecting motivational salience during extended feedback processing. Furthermore, these opposing profiles were independent of, and significantly different from, one another. These results suggest that feedback-related ERPs following immediate and future rewards are candidate biomarkers that can physiologically separate vulnerability for bipolar spectrum from unipolar depressive disorders.

Elevated outcome-anticipation and outcome-evaluation ERPs associated with a greater preference for larger-but-delayed rewards

Although waiting for a reward reduces or discounts its value, some people have a stronger tendency to wait for larger rewards and forgo smaller-but-immediate rewards. This ability to delay gratification is captured by individual differences in so-called intertemporal choices in which individuals are asked to choose between larger-but-delayed versus smaller-but-immediate rewards. The current study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine whether enhancement in two neurocognitive processes, outcome anticipation and outcome evaluation, modulate individual variability in intertemporal responses. After completing a behavioral intertemporal choice task, 34 participants performed an ERP gambling task. From this ERP task, we separately examined individual differences in outcome anticipation (stimulus-preceding negativity; SPN), early outcome valuation (feedback-related negativity; FRN), and late outcome evaluation (P3). We observed that both elevated outcome-anticipation (SPN) and late outcome-evaluation (P3) neural processes predicted a stronger preference toward larger-but-delayed rewards. No relationship was observed between intertemporal responses and early outcome evaluation (FRN), indicating that the relationship between outcome evaluation and intertemporal responses was specific to the late outcome-evaluation processing stream. Moreover, multiple regression analyses indicated that the SPN and P3 independently modulate individual differences in intertemporal responses, suggesting separate mechanisms underlie the relationship between these two neurocognitive processes and intertemporal responses. Accordingly, we identify two potential neurocognitive modulators of individual variability in intertemporal responses. We discuss the mechanisms underlying these modulators in terms of anticipation-related processing (SPN) and a saliency bias toward gain (compared to loss) outcomes (P3).

Abstinent Heroin Addicts Tend to Take Risks: ERP and Source Localization

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.

Time Is Money: The Decision Making of Smartphone High Users in Gain and Loss Intertemporal Choice

Nowadays the smartphone plays an important role in our lives. While it brings us convenience and efficiency, its overuse can cause problems. Although a great number of studies have demonstrated that people affected by substance abuse, pathological gambling, and internet addiction disorder have lower self-control than average, scarcely any study has investigated the decision making of smartphone high users by using a behavioral paradigm. The present study employed an intertemporal task, the Smartphone Addiction Inventory (SPAI) and the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale 11th version (BIS-11) to explore the decision control of smartphone high users in a sample of 125 college students. Participants were divided into three groups according to their SPAI scores. The upper third (69 or higher), middle third (from 61 to 68) and lower third (60 or lower) of scores were defined as high smartphone users, medium users and low users, respectively. We compared the percentage of small immediate reward/penalty choices in different conditions between the three groups. Relative to the low users group, high users and medium users were more inclined to request an immediate monetary reward. Moreover, for the two dimensions of time and money in intertemporal choice, high users and medium users showed a bias in intertemporal choice task among most of the time points and value magnitude compared to low users. These findings demonstrated that smartphone overuse was associated with problematic decision-making, a pattern similar to that seen in persons affected by a variety of addictions.

Undervaluing delayed rewards explains adolescents' impulsivity in inter-temporal choice: an ERP study

Adolescence has frequently been characterized as a period of choice impulsivity relative to adulthood. According to the control-integrated valuation model of inter-temporal choice, this choice impulsivity may be driven partly by an age-related difference in reward processing. We hypothesized that, compared to adults, adolescents would undervalue delayed rewards during reward processing and would thus be more impulsive in inter-temporal choice. To test this hypothesis at the behavioural and neural levels, we first measured the choice impulsivity of 18 adolescents and 19 adults using a delay discounting task (DDT). Then, we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) from the participants while they were performing the valuation task, in which monetary gains and losses were either immediate or delayed. The behavioural results showed that adolescents were more impulsive than adults in the DDT. The ERP results showed that, whilst both groups valued immediate rewards, implied by a similarly strong feedback-related negativity (FRN) effect associated with immediate outcomes, adolescents devalued delayed rewards more than adults did, as they produced a significantly smaller FRN effect associated with delayed outcomes. As predicted, the mediation analysis revealed that the adolescents' lower FRN effect of delayed outcomes underpinned their stronger impulsive decision making in the DDT.

The effect of altruistic tendency on fairness in third-party punishment

Third-party punishment, as an altruistic behavior, was found to relate to inequity aversion in previous research. Previous researchers have found that altruistic tendencies, as an individual difference, can affect resource division. Here, using the event-related potential (ERP) technique and a third-party punishment of dictator game paradigm, we explored third-party punishments in high and low altruists and recorded their EEG data. Behavioral results showed high altruists (vs. low altruists) were more likely to punish the dictators in unfair offers. ERP results revealed that patterns of medial frontal negativity (MFN) were modulated by unfairness. For high altruists, high unfair offers (90:10) elicited a larger MFN than medium unfair offers (70:30) and fair offers (50:50). By contrast, for low altruists, fair offers elicited larger MFN while high unfair offers caused the minimal MFN. It is suggested that the altruistic tendency effect influences fairness consideration in the early stage of evaluation. Moreover, the results provide further neuroscience evidence for inequity aversion.

You did not mean it: Perceived good intentions alleviate sense of unfairness

Previous research has reported that feedback-related negativity (FRN) may represent the degree of perceived unfairness in the ultimatum game (UG). However, few studies have incorporated intention-related consideration in examining the neural correlates of fairness perception. To address this issue, the present study introduced an intentional UG paradigm to disentangle the effect of perceived intention from fairness concerns, using an event-related potential (ERP) analysis. Consistent with the hypothesis, the behavioral results indicated that good intention could markedly reduce rejection rates, and this intention effect was modulated by the degree of fairness, which was more prominent under unfair scenarios. Further electrophysiological results showed that, for the unfair division schemes, FRN and P300 amplitudes were significantly different between offers proposed with good intention and those with bad intention, while such discrepancies were not observed for the fair condition. In summary, converging results demonstrated that perceived intention can modulate the effect of fairness in social decision-making.