Synchrony of anterior cingulate cortex and insular-striatal activation predicts ambiguity aversion in individuals with low impulsivity.
Personal attitude toward ambiguity contributes to individual differences in decision making in uncertain situations. Operationally, these attitudes reflect the various coping strategies elected to overcome the limited information. A key brain region involved in cognitive control for performance adjustments is the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC). To test how dACC functional network connectivity would be modulated by uncertainty and differ between individuals, 24 healthy participants underwent functional MRI in 3 sequential runs: 1 resting-state and 2 decision-making task runs. Individuals with lower nonplanning impulsiveness made greater use of a Pass option and avoided uncertain ambiguous situations. Seed-based functional connectivity analysis during the task runs revealed that stronger activation synchrony between the left dACC and the right anterior insula correlated with greater use of a Pass response option. During the resting-state, stronger resting-state functional connectivity between the left dACC and the ventral striatum predicted the adoption of Pass as a behavioral strategy and correlated with stronger task-activated synchrony between the dACC and the right anterior insula. Our findings indicate that that the synchrony between the dACC and insula-striatal circuitry was greater in individuals with low compared with high nonplanning impulsiveness and contributed to adopting Pass as a useful behavioral strategy.
Department of Psychiatry and Institute of Behavioral Science in Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul 120-752, South Korea.
Young-Chul
YC
Jung
Tilman
T
Schulte
Eva M
EM
Müller-Oehring
William
W
Hawkes
Kee
K
Namkoong
Adolf
A
Pfefferbaum
Edith V
EV
Sullivan
D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000098:blood supply / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003657:Decision Making; D007174:Disruptive, Impulse Control, and Conduct Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000098:blood supply / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000098:blood supply; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011930:Reaction Time; D035501:Uncertainty
D010100:Oxygen
ambiguity; anterior cingulate cortex; functional connectivity; impulsivity; uncertainty