title: Are risky choices actually guided by a compensatory process? New insights from FMRI.
abstract: The dominant theories about risky decision-making assume that decision conflicts are solved by a compensatory process involving a trade-off of probability against payoff, but it is unclear whether these theories actually represent the events that occur when people make a risky decision. By contrasting a preferential choice with a judgment-based choice that required a compensatory process, we explored the mechanisms underlying risky decision-making. First, using parametric analyses, we identified the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dMPFC) as the specific region in charge of task-related conflict in risky decision-making tasks. We also showed that the dMPFC was activated less when judgment-based choices were being made, implying that the conflict experienced during a judgment-based choice was not as strong as the conflict that was experienced during the preferential choice. Our results provide neural evidence that preferential choice cannot be characterized solely as a compensatory process. Thus, questions were raised about whether existing compensatory theories could adequately describe individual risky decisions.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Li-Lin
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Lijuan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Zhu-Yuan
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: Tianzi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Shu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D001931:Brain Mapping; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D012309:Risk-Taking; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D055815:Young Adult