Abstract
Risk-taking is subject to considerable individual differences. In the current study, we tested whether resting-state activity in the prefrontal cortex and trait sensitivity to reward and punishment can help predict risk-taking behavior. Prefrontal activity at rest was assessed in seventy healthy volunteers using electroencephalography, and compared to their choice behavior on an economic risk-taking task. The Behavioral Inhibition System/Behavioral Activation System scale was used to measure participants’ trait sensitivity to reward and punishment. Our results confirmed both prefrontal resting-state activity and personality traits as sources of individual differences in risk-taking behavior. Right-left asymmetry in prefrontal activity and scores on the Behavioral Inhibition System scale, reflecting trait sensitivity to punishment, were correlated with the level of risk-taking on the task. We further discovered that scores on the Behavioral Inhibition System scale modulated the relationship between asymmetry in prefrontal resting-state activity and risk-taking. The results of this study demonstrate that heterogeneity in risk-taking behavior can be traced back to differences in the basic physiology of decision-makers’ brains, and suggest that baseline prefrontal activity and personality traits might interplay in guiding risk-taking behavior.
Highlights
If the same decision options with uncertain outcomes are presented to different people, they will rarely all make the same choice
The data by Schuetter and Van Honk [8] suggests that risky choice behavior is linked to the resting-state activity in the bilateral PFC, while Gianotti et al [9] observed a link with the hemispherical balance in the PFC
Risk-taking behavior was linked to asymmetry in resting-state activity in the right versus the left PFC
Summary
If the same decision options with uncertain outcomes are presented to different people, they will rarely all make the same choice. Gianotti and colleagues [9] focused on interindividual variability in hemispherical balance in prefrontal resting-state activity, and found that stronger right-left asymmetry in prefrontal slow-wave power (theta and delta band) was associated with increased risk-taking on the Devil’s Task [11]. Both previous studies demonstrate that individual differences in risk-taking behavior can be linked to resting-state slow-wave activity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). We recorded resting-state brain activity in 70 healthy student volunteers using EEG, and analyzed slowwave power (theta and delta band) in the prefrontal cortex
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