title: Decision-making in a risk-taking task: a PET study.
abstract: As decision-making is central to motivated behavior, understanding its neural substrates can help elucidate the deficits that characterize various maladaptive behaviors. Twenty healthy adults performed a risk-taking task during positron emission tomography with (15)O-labeled water. The task, a computerized card game, tests the ability to weigh short-term rewards against long-term losses. A control task matched all components of the risk-taking task except for decision-making and the difference between responses to contingent and non-contingent reward and punishment. Decision-making (2 runs of the active task minus 2 runs of the control task) activated orbital and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate, insula, inferior parietal cortex and thalamus predominantly on the right side, and cerebellum predominantly on the left side. In an exploratory analysis, guessing (run 1 minus run 2 of the active task) accompanied activation of sensory-motor associative areas, and amygdala on the left side, whereas informed decision-making (run 2 minus run 1) activated areas that subserve memory (hippocampus, posterior cingulate) and motor control (striatum, cerebellum). The findings provide a framework for future investigations of decision-making in maladaptive behaviors.
authors.affiliation: Intramural Research Program of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21224, USA. ernstm@intra.nimh.nih.gov
authors.forename: Monique
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ernst
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bolla
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mouratidis
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Contoreggi
authors.forename: John A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Matochik
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kurian
authors.forename: Jean Lud
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Cadet
authors.forename: Alane S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Kimes
authors.forename: Edythe D
authors.initials: ED
authors.lastname: London
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012309:Risk-Taking; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data