Somatic Marker Hypothesis Research Articles

Framework for Incorporating Artificial Somatic Markers in the Decision-Making of Autonomous Agents

The somatic marker hypothesis proposes that when a person faces a decision scenario, many thoughts arise and different “physical consequences” are fleetingly observable. It is generally accepted that affective dimension influences cognitive capacities. Several proposals for including affectivity within artificial systems have been presented. However, to the best of our knowledge, a proposal that considers the incorporation of artificial somatic markers in a disaggregated and specialized way for the different phases that make up a decision-making process has not been observed yet. Thus, this research work proposes a framework that considers the incorporation of artificial somatic markers in different phases of the decision-making of autonomous agents: recognition of decision point; determination of the courses of action; analysis of decision options; decision selection and performing; memory management. Additionally, a unified decision-making process and a general architecture for autonomous agents are presented. This proposal offers a qualitative perspective following an approach of grounded theory, which is suggested when existing theories or models cannot fully explain or understand a phenomenon or circumstance under study. This research work represents a novel contribution to the body of knowledge in guiding the incorporation of this biological concept in artificial terms within autonomous agents.

Iowa Gambling Task and Distortion in Perception of Body Image Among Adolescent Women With Eating Disorders.

The Iowa gambling task (IGT) is an instrument for the neuropsychological evaluation of cognitive and emotional decision making (DM) processes that was created to test the somatic marker hypothesis (SMH) described by Damasio in 1994. It was initially applied to patients with frontal lobe lesions due to its association with executive functions but was subsequently used on patients with a variety of disorders. Although the DM process is inherently perceptual, few studies have applied the IGT to examine DM processes in patients with eating disorders (EDs), and even fewer have associated the IGT to the perceptual distortion of body image (PDBI) in this population. People diagnosed with ED exhibit heightened control over their somatic responses—for example, they can delay digestion for hours—and DM may be affected in this condition. This study compares the performance of two samples of adolescent women—hospitalized patients with ED, and healthy controls with similar demographic characteristics—on the IGT using body image as a possible factor in the SMH. Seventy-four women with a mean age of 14.97 years (SD = 2.347) participated. To analyze their body self-image, we used the figure-rating scale and compared the results with their body mass index (BMI). Correlations between indices of the IGT and distortion in body image were then explored. The results revealed significant differences between the groups in terms of evolving performance on the partial IGT. Patients with ED performed worse than their healthy counterparts in the last 40 trials and exhibited greater distortions in their body image, especially in terms of overestimation. Indices of these distortions were negatively correlated with the total IGT. These results are compatible with the SMH because they suggest that patients with ED evinced blindness with regard to the future, as described by their authors. In addition, a negative correlation was found between the IGT and PDBI, showing that a more distorted body image was associated with lower IGT, that is, more disadvantageous or riskier decisions were made by the subjects with more distortion.

Bridging Ecological Rationality, Embodied Emotion, and Neuroeconomics: Insights From the Somatic Marker Hypothesis.

The somatic marker hypothesis (SMH) has been utilized to demonstrate the role of emotion and somatic state in decision-making under uncertainty over the past two decades. Despite some debate, the SMH has provided not only a neurobiological framework for understanding emotion and decision-making but also a good empirical support for ecological rationality and embodied emotion. Unlike the traditional maximizing rationality and bounded satisficing rationality, the ecological rationality stresses that emotions should be brought to the decision-making process. The embodied emotion furthermore emphasizes that emotions are embodied in the body and the brain. On the other hand, behavioral decision-making has spawned many new interdisciplines, including neuroeconomics. In this case, the SMH could act as a bridge to translate the ecological rationality and the embodied emotion into emerging neuroeconomics. Thus, this mini-review article aims to propose an integrated framework for introducing ecological rationality and embodied emotion into the field of neuroeconomics by virtue of insights from the SMH.

Electrophysiological Measurement of Emotion and Somatic State Affecting Ambiguity Decision: Evidences From SCRs, ERPs, and HR.

Twenty-three years ago, the Somatic Marker Hypothesis (SMH) proposed by Damasio was introduced to explain the role of emotion in decision-making, and provided a unique neuroanatomical framework for decision-making and its influence by emotion. The core idea of the SMH is that decision-making is a process that is affected by somatic state signals, including those that express themselves in emotion and feeling. In order to verify the SMH, the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) was originally designed by Bechara et al. and the skin conductance responses (SCRs) was recorded during the IGT. The initial confirmatory results showed that normal subjects would generate anticipatory SCRs when they received reward or punishment, but patients of the VMPFC lesion entirely failed to generate anticipatory SCRs prior to their selection of a card. With the further development of the SMH–related researches, other electrophysiological methods of measuring somatic state was gradually used to test the SMH, including event-related potentials (ERPs), and heart rate (HR). In this mini review article, we summarize the extant electrophysiological research on the SMH and decision-making under ambiguity, propose an integrative perspective for employing different electrophysiological measurement methods, and indicate the application of electrophysiological measurement based on the SMH in daily social decision-making.

Cognition and Learning in Decision-Making as Compensatory Mechanism for Emotional Processing Deficit.

The functional roles of ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPF) and amygdala in affecting emotional processing in decision-making have been raised in support of the somatic marker hypothesis. However, later studies demonstrated challenges to such support based on preserved cognition in the form of reversal learning in VMPF damaged patients tested with a shuffled variant of Iowa Gambling Task. This finding provides implications for cognitive neglect in somatic marker hypothesis with its magnified emphasis on the link between somatic markers and emotion-guided decision-making. It also suggests that cognition could compensate for emotion impairment in the absence of crucial prefrontal cortical region needed for low-risk choice and decision-making. Emotional somatic marker signaling is proposed to be an assistive initiation mechanism for choice decision-making between gains and losses instead of a fixated necessity in the process, and that it works in concert with concurrent conscious knowledge and cognition of the situation, building upon the nature of close connections between the VMPF and other brain region(s).

Follow your gut? Emotional intelligence moderates the association between physiologically measured somatic markers and risk-taking.

Emotional Intelligence (EI) is a set of adaptive skills that involve emotions and emotional information. Prior research suggests that lower EI individuals behave maladaptively in social situations compared to higher EI individuals. However, there is a paucity of research on whether EI promotes adaptive decision-making. Leveraging the somatic marker hypothesis, we explore whether EI moderates the relationship between skin conductance responses (SCRs) and risky decision-making. In two separate sessions in the behavioral lab, participants (N = 52) completed tests of emotional intelligence and made a total of 5,145 decisions involving risk. At Time 1, participants completed an ability test of EI and cognitive intelligence. At Time 2, participants completed 100 decision trials of the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). Consistent with prior research using the IGT, participants played a computerized card game with real monetary rewards in which two "safe" decks led to higher average monetary rewards and two "risky" decks led to higher average losses. We found that EI moderates the relationship between physiological arousal, as measured by SCRs, and risk-taking. Specifically, lower EI individuals exhibited a maladaptive, positive association between SCRs and risk-taking, whereas higher EI individuals did not exhibit a relationship between SCRs and risk-taking. Our findings suggest one important way in which low EI may lead to maladaptive decision-making is through appraising physiological arousal incorrectly. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Effects of interoceptive training on decision making, anxiety, and somatic symptoms

BackgroundInteroception is the perception of afferent information that arises from any point within the body. Individual differences in interoception have been associated with affective processing and decision-making processing. The somatic marker hypothesis summarizes the potential effects of interoception on decision-making processes. According to this theory, individuals with interoceptive dysfunction exhibit disadvantageous decision making. Recently, enhancement of interoceptive accuracy, an element of interoception assessed by objective decision-making tasks, has been demonstrated using biofeedback. Garfinkle et al. developed an interoceptive training task, modified from the heartbeat perception task, which enhanced interoceptive accuracy and reduced anxiety symptoms. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of interoceptive training on decision-making processes. Based on improvements in interoceptive accuracy, we hypothesized that decision-making scores would change in a manner indicative of increased rationality.MethodsThis longitudinal interventional study was performed with interoceptive training. Before and after the intervention, interoceptive accuracy and rationality of decision-making processes were assessed using a heartbeat perception task and rational decision-making tasks, respectively. Fourteen healthy volunteers (nine women; mean age, 21.9 ± 4.5 years) participated. The analysis included data from 12 participants. To detect individual differences in the effects of interoceptive accuracy on rationality of decision making, correlation analysis was conducted on change ratios of the indices of interoceptive accuracy and rationality of decision making.ResultsInteroceptive training resulted in significant enhancement of interoceptive accuracy scores and significant reductions in somatic symptom and state anxiety scores. In contrast, interoceptive training did not cause significant changes in decision-making indices. There was a significant positive correlation between change ratios of indices of interoceptive accuracy and rationality of decision making.ConclusionsThe results suggested a causal relation between interoception and rationality of decision making. These findings will enhance the understanding of mechanisms underlying alterations of decision-making related to psychotherapy by focusing on interoception.Trial registrationTrial registration number: UMIN000037548.

Mediating role of attenuated physiological arousal on the association between psychopathic traits and fairness norm violation

The low-fear model of primary psychopathy has been supported by empirical findings such as attenuated physiological arousal in anticipation of threatening stimuli. The somatic marker hypothesis proposes that salient changes in the bodily state are processed as signals of whether a situation is good or bad and guide an individual to avoid potential adverse consequences. The present study aimed to elucidate the role that attenuated physiological arousal plays in the relationship between primary psychopathy and fairness norm violations both under the threat of punishment and under no potential for punishment. Primary psychopathy was associated with an attenuated skin conductance response prior to the choice of unfair monetary offers to another person, regardless of the potential for punishment. Attenuated skin conductance mediated the association between primary psychopathy and the choice of an unfair offer, especially in the no-punishment condition. However, in the punishment condition, primary psychopathy significantly predicted the choice of unfair offers even after controlling for the magnitude of skin conductance. The bodily response may have only a marginal effect on interpersonal decision-making under a threat of punishment. The present results suggest that the low-fear account of social norm violations as a function of primary psychopathy should be re-discussed.

VINERS Method for the Multiple Criteria Analysis and Neuromarketing of Best Places to Live

The best and worst places to live have been analysed in the world for many years and multiple criteria analysis has been used for that purpose. The quality of housing and its environment, pollution, green places, public spaces, physical movement and health, crime rates and individual safety, the wellbeing of youngsters, unemployment, job value, economic scarcity, governance, circadian rhythm, weekly rhythm and other factors are the focus of such analyses that aim to determine levels of positive emotions and happiness in built environment. Questionnaires are the most common tool for such analyses, where inhabitants are asked to rank their happiness experience as a whole in built environment. Many studies demonstrate that happy people are effective in multiple areas of their life including job efficiency, salary, health, human relations, etc. The innovative aspect of this research stems from the fact that biometric technologies (affective attitudes, emotional and physiological states) and the VINERS method developed by the authors are used to determine the best places to live and to serve neuro ads of homes for sale. To do this, rational segments of homebuyers are determined according to their demographic profiles (age, gender, education, marital status, families with children, main source of income), consumer psychographics and behaviour (happy, sad and angry along with valence and heart rate) and then select a rational video ad for such rational segment. The aim of our research is to develop the VINERS Method for the Multiple Criteria Analysis and Neuromarketing of Best Places to Live (VINERS method) by combining the Somatic Marker Hypothesis, biometrics, neuromarketing and COPRAS method. This article presents a case study to demonstrate the VINERS method put to practice.

Vagal signaling and the somatic marker hypothesis: The effect of transcutaneous vagal nerve stimulation on delay discounting is modulated by positive mood

Controlling impulsivity and delaying gratifications are key features of effective self-control. Delay Discounting (DD) indexes the ability to delay rewards and previous research has shown that discounting is influenced by affective states such as mood. According to the Somatic Marker Hypothesis (SMH), afferent somatic signals, such as mood, are carried by the vagus and can influence decision making. In the current study, we employed transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS), a novel non-invasive brain stimulation technique that stimulates the auricular branch of the afferent vagus nerve (located in the outer ear), to assess its effects on decision impulsivity, while taking into account individuals' mood and resting-state HRV as a possible confounding factor. Employing a within-subjects cross-over design, 94 participants received active or sham tVNS while performing delay discounting in two separate sessions. As compared to sham, active tVNS increased discounting, but only for individuals reporting lower positive mood, regardless of the level of negative mood reported. We evidence that the effect of tVNS on reward discounting depends on the level of positive mood. This result suggests that positive mood state might be a proxy of task-relevant arousal, likely influencing the effectiveness of afferent vagal stimulation on self-control processes, as temporal discounting.

Decision Making Profile of Positive and Negative Anticipatory Skin Conductance Responders in an Unlimited-Time Version of the IGT.

Based on the somatic marker hypothesis (Damasio, 1994), many studies have examined whether or not physiological responses are “somatic markers” that implicitly guide the decision making process. Vegetative or motor reactions that are produced by negative or positive stimuli generate a series of somatic markers. So, when a similar stimuli is encountered in the future, these somatic marks will facilitate favorable decisions and inhibit the disadvantageous ones (Martínez-Selva et al., 2006). The most widely studied physiological responses, as indicators of these markers, are heart rate and the skin conductance response (Damasio, 1994; Bechara et al., 1996). The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) has been the most widely used tool in this research. The common IGT protocol for psychophysiological studies comprises limited inter-trial intervals, and does not distinguish participants as a function of relevant physiological traits, such as the anticipatory skin conductance response (aSCR). The objectives of this work were to determine whether “somatic markers” guide the decision making process without time restrictions and to examine the effects of opposite aSCR profiles on this process. Participants were 29 healthy subjects, divided into two groups according to positive (+) and negative (−) aSCR. Two different data analysis strategies were applied: firstly, gambling indices were computed and, secondly, we examined the parameters of the probabilistic Prospect Valence Learning (PVL) model in three versions: maximum likelihood estimation (MLE), PVL-Delta and PVL-Decay simulations with Hierarchical Bayesian analysis (HBA) for parameter estimation. The results show a significant group effect in gambling indices, with the aSCR+ group presenting lower risk in the decision making process than the aSCR− group. Significant differences were also observed in the Utility parameter of MLE-PVL, with the aSCR− group have low sensitivity to feedback outcomes, than aSRC+ group. However, data from the PVL simulations do not show significant group differences and, in both cases, the utility value denotes low sensitivity to feedback outcomes.

Sweating the small stuff: A meta-analysis of skin conductance on the Iowa gambling task

To systematically examine the role of anticipatory skin conductance responses (aSCRs) in predicting Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) performance. Secondly, to assess the quality of aSCR evidence for the Somatic Marker Hypothesis (SMH) during the IGT. Finally, to evaluate the reliability of current psychophysiological measurements on the IGT. Electronic databases, journals and reference lists were examined for inclusion. Data were extracted by two reviewers and validated by another reviewer, using a standardised extraction sheet along with a quality assessment. Two meta-analyses of aSCR measures were conducted to test the relationship between overall aSCR and IGT performance, and differences in aSCR between advantageous and disadvantageous decks. Twenty studies were included in this review. Quality assessment revealed that five studies did not measure anticipatory responses, and few stated they followed standard IGT and/or psychophysiological procedures. The first meta-analysis of 15 studies revealed a significant, small-to-medium relationship between aSCR and IGT performance (r= .22). The second meta-analysis of eight studies revealed a significant, small difference in aSCR between the advantageous and disadvantageous decks (r= .10); however, publication bias is likely to be an issue. Meta-analyses revealed aSCR evidence supporting the SMH. However, inconsistencies in the IGT and psychophysiological methods, along with publication bias, cast doubt on these effects. It is recommended that future tests of the SMH use a range of psychophysiological measures, a standardised IGT protocol, and discriminate between advantageous and disadvantageous decks.

Different physiological reactions when observing lies versus truths: Initial evidence and an intervention to enhance accuracy.

Humans consistently face the challenge of discerning liars from truth-tellers. Hundreds of studies in which observers judge the veracity of laboratory-created lies and truths suggest that this is a difficult task; in this context, lie-detection accuracy is notoriously poor. Challenging these findings and traditional methodologies in lie-detection research, we draw upon the somatic marker hypothesis and research on interoception to find that: (a) people experience physiological reactions indicating increased sympathetic arousal while observing real, high-stakes lies (vs. truths), and (b) attending to these physiological reactions may improve lie-detection accuracy. Consistent with the tipping point framework, participants demonstrated more physiological arousal and vasoconstriction while observing real crime liars versus truth-tellers, but not mock crime liars versus truth-tellers (Experiment 1; N = 48). Experiment 2 replicated this effect in a larger sample of participants (N = 169). Experiment 3 generalized this effect to a novel set of stimuli; participants demonstrated more physiological arousal to game show contestants who lied (vs. told the truth) about their intention to cooperate in a high-stakes economic game (N = 71). In an intervention study (Experiment 4; N = 428), participants were trained to attend to their physiological signals; lie-detection accuracy increased relative to a control condition. Experiment 5 (N = 354) replicated this effect, and the addition of a bogus training condition suggested that increased accuracy was not simply attributable to self-focused attention. Findings highlight the limitations of relying on laboratory-created lies to study human lie-detection and suggest that observers have automatic, physiological reactions to being deceived. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Sad faces increase the heartbeat-associated interoceptive information flow within the salience network: a MEG study

The somatic marker hypothesis proposes that the cortical representation of visceral signals is a crucial component of emotional processing. No previous study has investigated the information flow among brain regions that process visceral information during emotional perception. In this magnetoencephalography study of 32 healthy subjects of either sex, heartbeat-evoked responses (HERs), which reflect the cortical processing of heartbeats, were modulated by the perception of a sad face. The modulation effect was localized to the prefrontal cortices, the globus pallidus, and an interoceptive network including the right anterior insula (RAI) and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (RdACC). Importantly, our Granger causality analysis provides the first evidence for the increased flow of heartbeat information from the RAI to the RdACC during sad face perception. Moreover, using a surrogate R-peak analysis, we have shown that this HER modulation effect was time-locked to heartbeats. These findings advance the understanding of brain-body interactions during emotional processing.

Emotion and decision-making: Induced mood influences IGT scores and deck selection strategies

ABSTRACTThe somatic marker hypothesis (SMH) represents a rich neuropsychological framework to study emotion-based decision-making. It originates from early brain lesion studies using the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), which showed that adaptive decision-making relies on intact ventromedial prefrontal cortex for the integration of so-called “hot” affective signals and rational “cold” perceptual cognitive computations. Subsequent studies over the past 20 years have provided converging evidence for the reliability and validity of the IGT in assessing decision-making in both healthy and clinical samples, although some discrepancies remain. In healthy individuals, it has been shown that differences in emotional states prior to taking the IGT result in different outcomes, thus potentially accounting for some of the variation within this group. However, the precise role of such transient modulations of emotional states remains unclear. In this study we sought to examine the role of specific induced moods under carefully controlled conditions. Accordingly, we randomly assigned 44 healthy college undergraduates to a positive, negative, or neutral affect condition in which they simultaneously viewed images and listened to music that previous studies had shown to induce specific moods. Results indicated that mood induction was successful, and the positive affect group showed a clearly different pattern of IGT performance compared to the other two groups, in that they showed a rapidly established and stable bias favoring the positive expected value (EV) card decks. The negative affect group showed significantly lower bias towards the positive EV decks, although this group was not different from the neutral affect group. Bayesian analyses confirmed these findings. While consistent with SMH, these current findings may be best understood in support of a more general effect of normal mood on cognition as outlined in the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions.

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Alcoholism identification via convolutional neural network based on parametric ReLU, dropout, and batch normalization

Alcoholism changes the structure of brain. Several somatic marker hypothesis network-related regions are known to be damaged in chronic alcoholism. Neuroimaging approach can help us better understanding the impairment discovered in alcohol-dependent subjects. In this research, we recruited subjects from participating hospitals. In total, 188 abstinent long-term chronic alcoholic participants (95 men and 93 women) and 191 non-alcoholic control participants (95 men and 96 women) were enrolled in our experiment via computerized diagnostic interview schedule version IV and medical history interview employed to determine whether the applicants can be enrolled or excluded. The Siemens Verio Tim 3.0 T MR scanner (Siemens Medical Solutions, Erlangen, Germany) was employed to scan the subjects. Then, we proposed a 10-layer convolutional neural network for the diagnosis based on imaging, including three advanced techniques: parametric rectified linear unit (PReLU); batch normalization; and dropout. The structure of network is fine-tuned. The results show that our method secured a sensitivity of 97.73 ± 1.04%, a specificity of 97.69 ± 0.87%, and an accuracy of 97.71 ± 0.68%. We observed the PReLU gives better performance than ordinary ReLU, clipped ReLU, and leaky ReLU. The batch normalization and dropout gained enhanced performance as batch normalization overcame the internal covariate shift and dropout got over the overfitting. The results of our proposed 10-layer CNN model show its performance better than seven state-of-the-art approaches.

Preliminary evidence on the somatic marker hypothesis applied to investment choices.

The somatic marker hypothesis is one of the more dominant physiological models of human decision-making and yet is seldom applied to decision-making in financial investment scenarios. This study provides preliminary evidence about the application of the somatic marker hypothesis in investment choices using heart rate and skin conductance response measures. Twenty undergraduate students were split equally into expert (defined by familiarity with investments) and novice (no familiarity) groups, because previous research has associated expertise with cognitive differences in decision making scenarios. Both groups completed the Balloon Analogue Risk Task and Behavioral Investment Allocation Strategy task-a computerized simulation of real trading scenarios- as assessments of investment decision-making in conditions of low versus high uncertainty, as defined by the Bayesian calculation (level of certainty is more than: (1 - (-300%))/(300% - (-300%)) = 66.67% (0.67). Results suggest that, although primary inducers (innate physiological responses) support and guide optimal decision-making in conditions of uncertainty, secondary inducers (physiological responses dependent on memory/experience) moderate this effect; that is, the stressful thoughts that accompany the task restrict optimal decision-making. This study contributes to the current knowledge on why emotions in finance can lead people to suboptimal decisions.

Improved decision-making and psychophysiological responses in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy after anterior temporal lobectomy.

The somatic marker hypothesis is an influential model of human decision-making postulating that somatic feedback to the brain enhances decision-making in ambiguous circumstances, i.e. when the probabilities of various outcomes are unknown. The somatic feedback can be measured as autonomic responses, which are regulated by the amygdala. The failure to evoke this somatic feedback, which occurs in patients with amygdala lesions, impairs decision-making. The purpose of this study was to investigate the decision-making behaviour of mesial temporal lobe epilepsy patients with pre- and post-epilepsy surgery to ascertain whether the decision-making abilities of groups can be explained by means of the generation of somatic feedback responses. The preoperative group comprised 32 patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy due to hippocampal sclerosis, while the postoperative group comprised 23 patients who had undergone anterior temporal lobectomy. The age and gender-matched control group consisted of 30 healthy participants. Decision-making performances were assessed and skin resistance responses were measured simultaneously. The findings of this study reveal that the decision-making performance of preoperative patients with unilateral mesial temporal lobe epilepsy was impaired under conditions of ambiguity, i.e. they did not generate somatic feedback responses before making decisions around ambiguous outcomes, and produced significantly poor scores overall based on a decision-making task. In addition, the resection of epileptogenic limbic structures positively affected the generation of somatic feedback responses, as demonstrated by the significant difference between the magnitudes of autonomic responses of the pre- and post-operative groups. The findings of the study validate the contribution of mesial temporal lobe structures to decision-making behaviour, and also point to the importance of examining the connectivity patterns between the neural structures involved in the decision-making network.

Rapid emotional response and disadvantageous Iowa gambling task performance in women with borderline personality disorder

BackgroundAdults with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) manifest poor performance on tasks of decision making which may be congruent with their decisional and interpersonal conflicts in real life. Poor decision making is often assumed to be due to impulsive behaviour or weak inhibitory control despite inconsistent evidences of these relationships, leaving questions about the specific nature of these decisional deficits. Decision making in BPD may be compromised by different domains of impulsivity, affective dysregulatory processes or unknown co-morbid ADHD which is considered a developmental precursor to BPD.FindingsIowa Gambling Task (IGT) decision making, 2 tasks of inhibitory control and a self report of ADHD symptoms consisting of 9 subscales were administered to 41 BPD women and 41 healthy controls. No group differences in inhibitory control were present. Net decision making performance and all ADHD subscale ratings differed significantly among BPD women and healthy controls. BPD women did not meet the threshold indicative of moderate to severe ADHD. Three subscales of attention, behaviour/ disorganized and emotive were significantly associated with poor IGT performance in 26 women with BPD. Of these 3 variables, the emotive subscale, representing a rapid emotional response, was the only significant predictor contributing 49% to the variance in poor DM.ConclusionsThis is the 1st evidence of an emotive type of impulsivity, representing a type of affective instability that is linked to poor IGT DM in BPD. Findings support the Somatic Marker Hypothesis of IGT DM and may reflect the affective dysregulation that characterizes the disorder.

Pathological Gambling in Parkinson's disease: Autonomic measures supporting impaired decision-making.

According to the somatic marker hypothesis, autonomic measures and arousal modulation can reveal a difference in subgroups of patients developing impaired decision-making because of addictions. Previously, pathological gambling (PG) and Parkinson's disease (PD) have been associated with differential arousal levels during gambling behavior. However, no research considered the specific autonomic responses of Parkinson's disease patients with pathological gambling and with a previous history of gambling. Thus, this study investigated skin conductance responses (SCRs), skin conductance level (SCL) and heart rate (HR) during the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) in two groups of PD patients with gambling disorder, active (PD Gamblers; n=14) or remitted (PD Non-Gamblers; n=13) and a control group of patients with Parkinson's disease only (n=13). Anticipatory autonomic responses to disadvantageous decks and advantageous decks during the Iowa Gambling Task were measured for each participant. The PD Gamblers group performed worse than the PD Non-Gamblers and the control groups at the IGT task and exhibited lower SCRs, SCL, and HR during the decision-making processing of cards belonging to disadvantageous decks. The role of autonomic and behavioral measures was considered.