Journal article
The effects of insula damage on decision-making for risky gains and losses
Social neuroscience, Vol.4(4), pp.347-358
01/01/2009
DOI: 10.1080/17470910902934400
PMID: 19466680
Abstract
Several lines of functional neuroimaging studies have attributed a role for the insula, a critical component of the brain's emotional circuitry, in risky decision-making. However, very little evidence yet exists as to whether the insula is necessary for advantageous decision-making under risk, specifically decisions involving uncertain gains and losses. The present study uses a risky decision-making task with lesion patients and healthy controls to investigate the effects of focal insula damage on risk-taking to achieve gains and to avoid losses. Compared to healthy controls, insula lesion patients showed an altered decision-making pattern in domains involving both risky gains and risky losses. Specifically, insula damage was associated with insensitivity to differences in expected value between choice options. Additionally, patients made significantly fewer risky choices than healthy adults in the gain domain. In conjunction with earlier findings, these results suggest that risky decision-making is dependent on the integrity of a neural circuitry that includes several brain regions known to be critical for the experience and expression of emotions, namely the insula, amygdala, and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. However, each neural region seems to provide a distinct contribution to the overall process of decision-making.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- The effects of insula damage on decision-making for risky gains and losses
- Creators
- Joshua A. Weller - Decision ResearchIrwin P. Levin - University of IowaBaba Shiv - Stanford Grad Sch Business, Stanford, CA USAAntoine Bechara - University of Southern California
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Social neuroscience, Vol.4(4), pp.347-358
- DOI
- 10.1080/17470910902934400
- PMID
- 19466680
- NLM abbreviation
- Soc Neurosci
- ISSN
- 1747-0919
- eISSN
- 1747-0927
- Publisher
- Taylor & Francis
- Number of pages
- 12
- Grant note
- P01 NS019632 / National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Strokes (NINDS); United States Department of Health & Human Services; National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA; NIH National Institute of Neurological Disorders & Stroke (NINDS) SES 03-50984; IIS 04-42586 / National Science Foundation; National Science Foundation (NSF) P01NS019632 / NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS AND STROKE; United States Department of Health & Human Services; National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA; NIH National Institute of Neurological Disorders & Stroke (NINDS)
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 01/01/2009
- Academic Unit
- Marketing; Psychological and Brain Sciences
- Record Identifier
- 9984963213502771
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