Brain Activity Predicts Risky Decisions

Your brain activity can reveal how you make big decisions, according to a new study.

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center studied the brain as people handled a set of decision making problems and found brain regions associated with rational processing, such as the lateral prefrontal cortex, were most active when participants used a strategy not consistent with traditional rational choices.

The findings also strongly argue against the commonly held the notion that there are rational and irrational parts of the brain.

“Our goal was to come up with a risky decision task that would both discriminate between alternative models of choice and represent something that often happens when people allocate scarce resources to make a risky choice more attractive," researcher John W. Payne, Ph.D., the Joseph J. Ruvane, Jr. Professor of Business was quoted saying.

Participants were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which showed real-time changes in brain functions as they completed problems involving real monetary gains and losses, such as buying a car. When faced with each problem, the participant chose a way to improve their chances and reduce the worse possible loss.

The study also showed that the medial prefrontal region of the brain shapes moment-to-moment changes in the strategies people use to make decisions.

“We all make some decisions opposite to our usual tendencies," study author Scott Huettel, Ph.D., co-director of the Duke Center for Neuroeconomic Studies was quoted saying. “When we do so, this brain region comes online and alters activations in other choice-related regions. We previously knew that this part of the brain played and important role in simple sorts of behavioral control, but this research shows that it retains switching roles even during complex decision making."

SOURCE: Neuron Online, May 27, 2009