Neural foundations of risk processing and decision making under risk in young adulthood and old age
Year: 2011
Type: dissertation
Abstract: In our everyday life we often have to make decisions with uncertain consequences, for instance in the context of retirement savings. Although these decisions can have important consequences (i.e., they can have an effect on our living standard in old age) it is still not fully understood how individuals process risk and how they make decisions under risk. In the context of this dissertation I have investigated three main questions all related to the topic risky decision making, namely (a) how neural processing of risk is influenced by emotions, context, and potential losses, (b) how individuals value choice options with continuous outcome distributions, and (c) how age-related changes in economic decision making are related to neurobiological changes during the adult life span. By showing in Project I that risk is consistently represented in the anterior insula, a brain region known to process aversive emotions like anxiety, disappointment, or regret, I provide evidence that risk processing is influenced by emotions. Further, the results show risk-related activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the parietal cortex in choice situations but not in situations were no choice is involved or a choice has already been made. The anterior insula was predominantly active in the presence of potential losses, indicating that potential losses modulate risk processing. The results thus provide evidence that neural processing of risk is influenced by emotions, context, and potential losses. In Project II I can show that risk-return models can explain choices behaviorally and that the components of risk-return models (value, risk, and risk attitude) are represented in the brain during choices. Most importantly, the observed correlation between risk and brain activity in the anterior insula during choices supports risk-return models more than utility- based models in the case of continuous outcome distributions because risk is an explicit component of risk-return models but not of the utility-based models. In Project III I identify the dopaminergic and serotoninergic brain systems as key neurotransmitter systems involved in economic behavior. Both are known to be prone to significant changes during the adult life span. Similarly, economic behavior undergoes significant age-related changes over the course of the adult life span. Consequently, I propose a triadic relationship between (a) economic decision making, (b) dopaminergic and serotoninergic neuromodulation, and (c) aging.
Author: Mohr, Peter N. C.
Language: English
Subfield: General Decision Sciences
Field: Decision Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Award: G5544240879
OpenAlex ID: W1906424327