title: Variability in nucleus accumbens activity mediates age-related suboptimal financial risk taking.
abstract: As human life expectancy continues to rise, financial decisions of aging investors may have an increasing impact on the global economy. In this study, we examined age differences in financial decisions across the adult life span by combining functional neuroimaging with a dynamic financial investment task. During the task, older adults made more suboptimal choices than younger adults when choosing risky assets. This age-related effect was mediated by a neural measure of temporal variability in nucleus accumbens activity. These findings reveal a novel neural mechanism by which aging may disrupt rational financial choice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-2130, USA. glarkin@stanford.edu
authors.forename: Gregory R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Samanez-Larkin
authors.forename: Camelia M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Kuhnen
authors.forename: Daniel J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Yoo
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Knutson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D004298:Dopamine / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology; D008032:Limbic System / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000378:metabolism; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000378:metabolism; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D009714:Nucleus Accumbens / Q000378:metabolism*; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000378:metabolism; D012201:Reward; D012309:Risk-Taking; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D004298:Dopamine