title: Predicting risk-taking behavior from prefrontal resting-state activity and personality.
abstract: Risk-taking is subject to considerable individual differences. In the current study, we tested whether resting-state activity in the prefrontal cortex and trait sensitivity to reward and punishment can help predict risk-taking behavior. Prefrontal activity at rest was assessed in seventy healthy volunteers using electroencephalography, and compared to their choice behavior on an economic risk-taking task. The Behavioral Inhibition System/Behavioral Activation System scale was used to measure participants' trait sensitivity to reward and punishment. Our results confirmed both prefrontal resting-state activity and personality traits as sources of individual differences in risk-taking behavior. Right-left asymmetry in prefrontal activity and scores on the Behavioral Inhibition System scale, reflecting trait sensitivity to punishment, were correlated with the level of risk-taking on the task. We further discovered that scores on the Behavioral Inhibition System scale modulated the relationship between asymmetry in prefrontal resting-state activity and risk-taking. The results of this study demonstrate that heterogeneity in risk-taking behavior can be traced back to differences in the basic physiology of decision-makers' brains, and suggest that baseline prefrontal activity and personality traits might interplay in guiding risk-taking behavior.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland ; Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Bettina
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Studer
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pedroni
authors.forename: Jörg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rieskamp
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology; D003700:Delta Rhythm / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D005715:Gambling / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D011678:Punishment; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012146:Rest / Q000502:physiology*; D012201:Reward; D012309:Risk-Taking; D013826:Theta Rhythm / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult