Sequential Risk-taking Task Research Articles

Concurrent behavioral modeling and multimodal neuroimaging reveals how feedback affects the performance of decision making in internet gaming disorder

Internet gaming disorder (IGD) prompts inquiry into how feedback from prior gaming rounds influences subsequent risk-taking behavior and potential neural mechanisms. Forty-two participants, including 15 with IGD and 27 health controls (HCs), underwent a sequential risk-taking task. Hierarchy Bayesian modeling was adopted to measure risky propensity, behavioral consistence, and affection by emotion ratings from last trial. Concurrent electroencephalogram and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (EEG-fNIRS) recordings were performed to demonstrate when, where and how the previous-round feedback affects the decision making to the next round. We discovered that the IGD illustrated heightened risk-taking propensity as compared to the HCs, indicating by the computational modeling (p = 0.028). EEG results also showed significant time window differences in univariate and multivariate pattern analysis between the IGD and HCs after the loss of the game. Further, reduced brain activation in the prefrontal cortex during the task was detected in IGD as compared to that of the control group. The findings underscore the importance of understanding the aberrant decision-making processes in IGD and suggest potential implications for future interventions and treatments aimed at addressing this behavioral addiction.

Exploring the Impact of Smartphone Addiction on Risk Decision-Making Behavior among College Students Based on fNIRS Technology.

Smartphone Addiction is a social issue caused by excessive smartphone use, affecting decision-making processes. Current research on the risky decision-making abilities of smartphone addicts is limited. This study used the functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) brain imaging technique and a Sequential Risk-Taking Task experimental paradigm to investigate the decision-making behavior and brain activity of smartphone addicts under varying risk levels. Using a mixed experimental design, the research assessed decision-making ability and brain activation levels as dependent variables across two groups (addiction and control), two risk amounts (high and low), and two outcomes (gain and loss). The study included 42 participants, with 25 in the addiction group and 17 in the control group. Results indicated that risk level significantly impacted the decision-making ability of smartphone addicts, with high-risk levels leading to weaker decision-making ability and increased risk-taking. However, at low-risk levels, decision-making abilities between addicts and healthy individuals showed no significant difference. Furthermore, brain imaging results using fNIRS revealed stronger brain activation in the dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (dlPFC) region for smartphone addicts under loss outcome conditions, with no significant differences between the two groups in terms of brain activation at varying risk volumes. These findings are critical in promoting healthy smartphone use, guiding clinical treatment, and advancing brain mechanism research.

The modulation of attentional deployment on emotional sensitivity to missed opportunity in depressive individuals: An event-related potential study

BackgroundDepression affects individuals' physical and mental health seriously. It's important to explore the pathological mechanisms underlying depression. However, the emotional sensitivity to missed opportunity in depressive individuals and whether attentional deployment influences it remain unclear. The exploration of these questions could help to find novel approaches for the treatment of depression. MethodsExperiment 1 investigated the emotional sensitivity to missed opportunity in depressive participants during a sequential risk-taking task relative to healthy participants. Experiment 2 added attentional deployment manipulation to the task, i.e., inducing participants to focus on the positive or negative part of decision outcome, and investigated the modulation of attentional deployment on depressive participants' emotional sensitivity to missed opportunity and the neural mechanisms underlying this process by using EEG. ResultsDepressive participants showed stronger emotional sensitivity to missed opportunity and LPP was a biomarker of this sensitivity. Moreover, focusing on the positive part of outcome reduced depressive participants' emotional sensitivity to missed opportunity effectively, and alpha power in the parietal area played a key role in this process. ConclusionsThe current study primarily revealed that depressive individuals were more sensitive to missed opportunity and attentional deployment was an effective way to modulate this sensitivity.

The neural mechanisms underlying the modulation of attentional deployment on emotional stability.

Emotional stability, the change of emotion response among situations, was associated with mental illness, such as depression. The current study aimed to explore the modulation of attentional deployment on emotional stability by combining functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and a sequential risk-taking task. During the task, participants were asked to open a series of boxes consecutively and decided when to stop. Each box contained a reward, except one containing a devil to zero reward in the trial. When participants stopped, both collected gains and missed chances were revealed. The attentional deployment was manipulated during the outcome feedback, i.e., inducing participants to focus on the good part (GF context) or the bad part (MF context) of the decision outcome. Besides, the Control context was also set, in which the attentional deployment was not manipulated. The behavioral results showed that the emotional stability was stronger in GF context relative to MF and Control contexts. At the neural level, with outcomes getting better, activations of ventral striatum (VS) and superior frontal gyrus (SFG) increased faster in GF context than that in MF and Control contexts. In addition, in GF context, the changing of SFG activation with outcomes getting better was associated with emotional stability. The current study highlighted that focusing on the good part of decision outcomes could enhance emotional stability effectively and SFG played a vital role in this process.

Dissociating value-based neurocomputation from subsequent selection-related activations in human decision-making.

Human decision-making requires the brain to fulfill neural computation of benefit and risk and therewith a selection between options. It remains unclear how value-based neural computation and subsequent brain activity evolve to achieve a final decision and which process is modulated by irrational factors. We adopted a sequential risk-taking task that asked participants to successively decide whether to open a box with potential reward/punishment in an eight-box trial, or not to open. With time-resolved multivariate pattern analyses, we decoded electroencephalography and magnetoencephalography responses to two successive low- and high-risk boxes before open-box action. Referencing the specificity of decoding-accuracy peak to a first-stage processing completion, we set it as the demarcation and dissociated the neural time course of decision-making into valuation and selection stages. The behavioral hierarchical drift diffusion modeling confirmed different information processing in two stages, that is, the valuation stage was related to the drift rate of evidence accumulation, while the selection stage was related to the nondecision time spent in response-producing. We further observed that medial orbitofrontal cortex participated in the valuation stage, while superior frontal gyrus engaged in the selection stage of irrational open-box decisions. Afterward, we revealed that irrational factors influenced decision-making through the selection stage rather than the valuation stage.

Altered neural responses to missed chance contribute to the risk-taking behaviour in individuals with Internet gaming disorder.

Missed chance is a powerful factor in shaping risk-taking behaviour. The abnormal risk-taking behaviour is an obvious feature of individuals with Internet gaming disorder (IGD). However, the relationship between the neural responses to missed chance and risk-taking behaviour in IGD individuals remains unclear. In the current fMRI study, 28 IGD subjects (12 female, 23.04 ± 2.43 years old) and 26 healthy control (HC) subjects (13 female, 23.58 ± 2.67 years old) participated in fMRI scanning during performance of a sequential risk-taking task. The general linear model and the psycho-physiological interaction analyses were conducted to explore the difference in neural responses between the two groups. The results showed that IGD subjects reported more regret for the large missed chance and took more risk than HC subjects. Moreover, compared with HC subjects, IGD subjects exhibited greater activations in brain regions like ventral striatum (VS) and superior frontal gyrus (SFG), and stronger VS-thalamus functional connectivity for the large missed chance. Additionally, among IGD subjects, the SFG activation for the large missed chance was positively correlated with the risk-taking behaviour. Together, the results revealed the altered neural responses to missed chance contributed to the risk-taking behaviour in IGD individuals. The findings could help to clearly understand why IGD individuals continue playing online games despite the risks of widely known and could provide a new perspective for the intervention of IGD.

The modulation of attentional deployment on regret: an event-related potential study.

Adopting a sequential risk-taking task, this study explored the modulation of attentional deployment on regret. Attentional deployment was manipulated during outcome feedback of the task by highlighting different parts to induce participants to focus on collected gains (GF context) or missed chances (MF context). The control context without attentional deployment manipulation was also set. Behaviorally, compared to the control context, participants felt less regret in the GF context but more regret in the MF context. Event-related potential results showed that the GF context elicited stronger reward positivity and late positive potential (LPP) than the control context. Furthermore, openness (NEO Five-Factor Inventory) negatively predicted the amplitude of LPP in the GF context. Source localization indicated that the superior frontal gyrus showed stronger activation in the GF context than in the control context during the time window of LPP. These results suggested that focusing on collected gains was an effective way to repress regret and that the LPP component played a key role in this process.

Reduced feelings of regret and enhanced fronto-striatal connectivity in elders with long-term Tai Chi experience.

The current study investigates how long-term Tai Chi experience affects the neural and emotional response to regret in elders. Participants perform the sequential risk-taking task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning. In the task, participants opened a series of boxes consecutively and decided when to stop. Each box contained a reward, except for one which contained a devil. If the devil was revealed, then this served to zero the participant’s gain in that trial. Once stopped, participant’s gains and missed chances were revealed. Behaviorally, the Tai Chi group showed less regret, reduced risk taking, higher levels of nonjudgment of inner experience and less emotional sensitivity to outcome. fMRI results showed that the Tai Chi group demonstrated stronger fronto-striatal functional connectivity in trials with numerous missed chances. The nonjudgment of inner experience mediated the impact of fronto-striatal functional connectivity on Tai Chi practitioners’ emotional sensitivity to outcome. These results highlight that long-term Tai Chi exercise may be effective in alleviating feelings of regret in elders by promoting reduced judgment of inner experience and enhanced emotion regulation through the strengthening of fronto-striatal functional connectivity.

When choosing means losing: Regret enhances repetitive negative thinking in high brooders

Past research suggests a relation between rumination (i.e., a form of repetitive negative thinking and a well-established vulnerability factor for depression) and regret (i.e., negative emotions containing self-blame, connected to cognitions about how past personal actions might have achieved better outcomes). However, these relations have not yet been investigated in experimental designs, and it has not been investigated how regret is related to both trait and state components of rumination. Therefore, in the present study we examined the temporal dynamics of repetitive negative thinking (state) in relation to regret, and how this is affected by interindividual differences in tendencies to engage in ruminative brooding (trait). Healthy females (N = 69) performed a sequential risk-taking task which included counterfactual feedback about alternative personal choice outcomes, and in which they experienced goal nonattainment (i.e., no monetary reward). Repetitive negative thoughts (state) prior to the task, and the tendency for ruminative brooding (trait), were both independently associated with reported regret after goal nonattainment, suggesting that both state and trait components of repetitive negative thinking render individuals more prone to experience regret. Furthermore, there was an interaction between regret after goal nonattainment and brooding (trait), in the sense that regret contributed to increases in (state) repetitive negative thinking, only among high brooders. The current results suggest that, among brooding-inclined individuals, the experience of regret may be a specific mechanism in aggravating repetitive negative thinking, which in turn may contribute to the development of psychopathology.

The emotional stability of elders with tai chi experience in the sequential risk-taking task.

The present study investigated the difference of emotional stability between elders with long-term tai chi experience and elders in a control group during the sequential risk-taking task. Twenty-eight tai chi practitioners (age = 67.36 ± 5.91 years, exercise years = 9.23 ± 4.19) and 28 control participants (age = 65.21 ± 3.55 years, other physical exercise without meditation component) participated in the experiment. Participants were asked to open a series of boxes consecutively and decided when to stop. Each box contained a reward, except for one, which contained a "devil." This box would eliminate the participant's score in the trial. Once participants stopped, both collected gains and missed chances were revealed. Then, participants rated how they felt on a 9-point scale from extreme regret to extreme relief. Additionally, participants filled out the Chinese version of the Beck Depression Inventory, the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale Version 11, the NEO Five-Factor Inventory, and the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire. The tai chi group showed a higher meditation level, stronger emotional stability, and less risk propensity (all ps < .05) than the control group. In the tai chi group, meditation level was positively correlated with emotional stability (r = -.47, p < .01). Moreover, subjective emotion was negatively correlated with subsequent behavior (tai chi: β = -.44, p < .001; control: β = -.27, p < .001). Subjective emotion rating entirely mediated the relationship between objective outcome and subsequent behavioral change in the control group, whereas it partially mediated such relationship in the tai chi group. The current cross-sectional study found a difference of behavior and feeling between elders with long-term tai chi experience and elders in the control group, which suggests that long-term tai chi experience could enhance elders' emotional stability and reduce their risk propensity during the sequential risk-taking task.

Long-Term Tai Chi Experience Promotes Emotional Stability and Slows Gray Matter Atrophy for Elders.

Brain adverse structural changes, especially the atrophy of gray matter, are inevitable in aging. Fortunately, the human brain is plastic throughout its entire life. The current cross-section study aimed to investigate whether long-term Tai Chi exercise could slow gray matter atrophy and explore the possible links among gray matter volume (GMV), long-term Tai Chi experience and emotional stability in a sequential risk-taking task by using voxel-based morphometry. Elders with long-term Tai Chi experience and controls, who were matched to Tai Chi group in age, gender, physical activity level, participated in the study. A T1-weighted multiplanar reconstruction sequence was acquired for each participant. Behaviorally, the Tai Chi group showed higher meditation level, stronger emotional stability and less risk-taking tendency in the sequential risk-taking compared to the control group. Moreover, the results revealed that the GMV of the thalamus and hippocampus were larger in the Tai Chi group compared with the control group. Notably, the GMV of the thalamus was positively correlated with both meditation level and emotional stability. The current study suggested the protective role of long-term Tai Chi exercise at slowing gray matter atrophy, improving the emotional stability and achieving successful aging for elders.

Responsibility modulates the neural correlates of regret during the sequential risk-taking task.

Responsibility is a necessary prerequisite in the experience of regret. The present fMRI study investigated the modulation of responsibility on the neural correlates of regret during a sequential risk-taking task. Participants were asked to open a series of boxes consecutively and decided when to stop. Each box contained a reward, except for one containing a devil to zero participant's gain in the trial. Once participants stopped, both collected gains and missed chances were revealed. We manipulated responsibility by setting two different contexts. In the Self (high responsibility) context, participants opened boxes and decided when to stop by themselves. In the Computer (low responsibility) context, a computer program opened boxes and decided when to stop for participants. Before each trial, participants were required to decide whether it would be a Self or a Computer context. Behaviorally, participants felt less regret (more relief) for gain outcome and more regret for the loss outcome in the high-responsibility context than low responsibility context. At the neural level, when experiencing a gain, high-responsibility trials were characterized by stronger activation in mPFC, pgACC, mOFC, and striatum with decreasing number of missed chances relative to low responsibility trials. When experiencing a loss, low responsibility trials were associated with stronger activation in dACC and bilateral insula than high-responsibility trials. Conversely, during a loss, high-responsibility trials showed more striatum activity than low responsibility trials. These results highlighted the sensitivity of the frontal region, striatum, and insula to changes in level of responsibility.

The neural basis of regret and relief during a sequential risk-taking task

Regret and relief are associated with counterfactual thinking and are sensitive to various social contexts. In the present fMRI study, we investigated the neural basis for regret and relief and how social context (following vs. not following advice) modulates them by employing a sequential risk-taking task. Participants were asked to open a series of boxes consecutively until they decided to stop. Each box contained a reward (gold), except for one that contained an adverse stimulus (devil), which caused the participant to lose all the gold collected in that trial. Before each trial, participants received advice about when to stop, which they then chose to follow or not. Behaviorally, subjective regret and relief were primarily dependent on the number of missed chances and the trade-off between obtained gains and missed chances, respectively. Participants felt less regret when they chose not to follow the advice than when they did. At the neural level, striatum, vmPFC/mOFC, and vACC activations were associated with greater relief. Meanwhile, dmPFC and left superior temporal gyrus were associated with greater regret. Additionally, dACC showed stronger activation in the Not-Follow context than the Follow context.

FNIRS derived hemodynamic signals and electrodermal responses in a sequential risk-taking task

The study measured cortical hemodynamic signals and peripheral correlates of decision makers during a dynamic risky task, the Just One More task (JOM), in which the risky decision entails choosing whether to incrementally increase accumulated earnings at the risk of ruin (going bust ending up with nothing). Twenty subjects participated in multiple instantiations of this task in which the probability of ruin and size of the stakes varied. Physiological correlates were simultaneously quantified by functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) over dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and electrodermal activity (EDA). First, in the task decision phase (i.e., when subjects are contemplating options before making a choice) probability of ruin had a dissociating effect on fNIRS and EDA. fNIRS derived DLPFC hemodynamic signals reflected a subjective value signal, correlating positively with individual risk attitude. Contrary, EDA reflected the probability of ruin in terms of a common affective measure, irrespective of individuals׳ risk attitude. Second, during the task outcome phase (i.e., the time after subjects have made a choice and observed the outcomes) fNIRS and EDA revealed opposite patterns. While fNIRS derived DLPFC hemodynamic signals were larger in response to gains, EDA signals were larger in response to losses; both patterns were statistically independent of individual risk attitude. Lastly, fNIRS derived DLPFC hemodynamic signals in the decision phase correlated positively with the mean round earnings, providing a measure of the quality of the individual decision-making performance. Together with the positive correlation with individual risk attitude, our findings indicate that fNIRS signals, but not EDA, could be taken as a useful method for studying individual risk attitude and task performance in dynamic risky decision-making.

What do I do now? An electroencephalographic investigation of the explore/exploit dilemma

To maximize reward, we are faced with the dilemma of having to balance the exploration of new response options and the exploitation of previous choices. Here, we sought to determine if the event-related brain potential (ERP) in the P300 time range is sensitive to decisions to explore or exploit within the context of a sequential risk-taking task. Specifically, the task we used required participants to continually explore their options—whether they should “push their luck” and keep gambling or “take the money and run” and collect their winnings. Our behavioral analysis yielded two distinct distributions of response times: a larger group of short-decision times and a smaller group of long-decision times. Interestingly, these data suggest that participants adopted one of two modes of control on any given trial: a mode where they quickly decided to keep gambling (i.e. exploit), and a mode where they deliberated whether to the take the money they had already won or continue gambling (i.e. explore). Importantly, we found that the amplitude of the ERP in the P300 time range was larger for explorative decisions than for exploitative decisions and, further, was correlated with decision time. Our results are consistent with a recent theoretical account that links changes in ERP amplitude in the P300 time range with phasic activity of the locus coeruleus–norepinephrine system and decisions to engage in exploratory behavior.

Modeling Driver Behavior as Sequential Risk-Taking Task

Acceleration models are at the core of operational driving behaviors and include car-following models that capture interactions between a lead and following vehicles. The main assumption in these models is that the behavior of the following vehicle (e.g., change in acceleration) is related directly to a stimulus observed or perceived by the driver, defined relative to the lead vehicle (e.g., difference in speeds or headways). An important aspect missing from previous formulations pertains to the stochastic character of the cognitive processes used by drivers, such as perception, judgment, and execution while driving. A car-following model that reflects the psychological and cognitive aspects of the phenomenon and captures risk-taking behavior under uncertainty is explored and evaluated. In this model, Tversky and Kahneman's prospect theory provides a theoretical and operational basis for weighing a driver's different alternatives. The model is implemented and tested to assess its properties and those of the resulting traffic stream behavior.

Modeling Behavior in a Clinically Diagnostic Sequential Risk-Taking Task.

This article models the cognitive processes underlying learning and sequential choice in a risk-taking task for the purposes of understanding how they occur in this moderately complex environment and how behavior in it relates to self-reported real-world risk taking. The best stochastic model assumes that participants incorrectly treat outcome probabilities as stationary, update probabilities in a Bayesian fashion, evaluate choice policies prior to rather than during responding, and maintain constant response sensitivity. The model parameter associated with subjective value of gains correlates well with external risk taking. Both the overall approach, which can be expanded as the basic paradigm is varied, and the specific results provide direction for theories of risky choice and for understanding risk taking as a public health problem.