Abstract

Human behavior is surprisingly variable, even when facing the same problem under identical circumstances. A prominent example is risky decision making. Economic theories struggle to explain why humans are so inconsistent. Resting-state studies suggest that ongoing endogenous fluctuations in brain activity can influence low-level perceptual and motor processes, but it remains unknown whether endogenous fluctuations also influence high-level cognitive processes including decision making. Here, using real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging, we tested whether risky decision making is influenced by endogenous fluctuations in blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) activity in the dopaminergic midbrain, encompassing ventral tegmental area and substantia nigra. We show that low prestimulus brain activity leads to increased risky choice in humans. Using computational modeling, we show that increased risk taking is explained by enhanced phasic responses to offers in a decision network. Our findings demonstrate that endogenous brain activity provides a physiological basis for variability in complex human behavior.

Highlights

  • Human behavior is surprisingly variable, even when facing the same problem under identical circumstances

  • We developed a real-time functional MRI (fMRI) framework to trigger presentation of options based on intrinsic fluctuations of blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) activity [17, 18] (Fig. 1 and SI Appendix, Fig. S1)

  • We show that endogenous fluctuations in the dopaminergic midbrain have direct behavioral relevance in modulating a preference for risky decision making in humans

Read more

Summary

Introduction

Human behavior is surprisingly variable, even when facing the same problem under identical circumstances. Using real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging, we tested whether risky decision making is influenced by endogenous fluctuations in blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) activity in the dopaminergic midbrain, encompassing ventral tegmental area and substantia nigra. | | behavioral variability intrinsic brain fluctuations dopaminergic | | midbrain risky decision making real-time fMRI related quantities such as reward prediction errors [14] are observed in BOLD activity within the SN/VTA [15, 16]. We developed an algorithm that detected epochs of very high and very low activity, providing a trigger to probe subjects with a matched set of choices between a safe and a risky option in these 2 background brain states (Methods) [11, 12]. Safe option values were determined from prescanning decisions from an extensive choice set (Methods)

Methods
Results
Conclusion
Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call