Abstract
Anatomical, clinical, and neuroimaging evidence implicates the cerebellum in processing emotions and feelings. Moreover recent studies showed a cerebellar involvement in pathologies such as autism, schizophrenia and alexithymia, in which emotional processing have been found altered. However, cerebellar function in the modulation of emotional responses remains debated. In this study, emotions that are involved directly in decision-making were examined in 15 patients (six males; age range 17–60 years) affected by cerebellar damage and 15 well matched healthy controls. We used a gambling task, in which subjects’ choices and evaluation of outcomes with regard to their anticipated and actual emotional impact were analyzed. Emotions, such as regret and relief, were elicited, based on the outcome of the unselected gamble. Interestingly, despite their ability to avoid regret in subsequent choices, patients affected by cerebellar lesions were significantly impaired in evaluating the feeling of regret subjectively. These results demonstrate that the cerebellum is involved in conscious recognizing of negative feelings caused by the sense of self-responsibility for an incorrect decision.
Highlights
Counterfactual reasoning is a cognitive mechanism that allows one to evaluate and compare what is obtained with what would have been acquired if a different choice had been made
Subjects with degenerative pathologies were affected by Friedreich ataxia (N = 3), spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 (SCA 2) (N = 3), SCA 15 (N = 2), SCA 28 (N = 1) and idiopathic cerebellar ataxia (ICA) (N = 1) (Table 2)
General Neuropsychological Assessment Cerebellar patients showed no deficits on the general neuropsychological assessment
Summary
Counterfactual reasoning is a cognitive mechanism that allows one to evaluate and compare what is obtained with what would have been acquired if a different choice had been made. Counterfactually people will react emotionally to what has been obtained and to the alternative unobtained outcome. Counterfactual thinking refers to the generation of alternatives to factual events and appears to be a pervasive feature of normal cognition. Counterfactual thoughts highlight causal relationships between choices and outcomes, thereby suggesting future courses of action that might be implemented strategically to facilitate adaptive behavior (Byrne, 2002). Counterfactual thinking is more related to negative emotions, regret and disappointment, than to positive emotions (Rose, 1997). Whereas disappointment arises when a negative outcome occurs independently of our decisions, regret occurs exclusively when the outcome results from bad decisions.
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