title: Neural mechanisms underlying urgent and evaluative behaviors: An fMRI study on the interaction of automatic and controlled processes.
abstract: Dual-process theories have dominated the study of risk perception and risk-taking over the last two decades. However, there is a lack of objective brain-level evidence supporting the two systems of processing in every-day risky behavior. To address this issue, we propose the dissociation between evaluative and urgent behaviors as evidence of dual processing in risky driving situations. Our findings show a dissociation of evaluative and urgent behavior both at the behavioral and neural level. fMRI data showed an increase of activation in areas implicated in motor programming, emotional processing, and visuomotor integration in urgent behavior compared to evaluative behavior. These results support a more automatic processing of risk in urgent tasks, relying mainly on heuristics and experiential appraisal. The urgent task, which is characterized by strong time pressure and the possibility for negative consequences among others factors, creates a suitable context for the experiential-affective system to guide the decision-making process. Moreover, we observed greater frontal activation in the urgent task, suggesting the participation of cognitive control in safe behaviors. The findings of this research are relevant for the study of the neural mechanisms underlying dual process models in risky perception and decision-making, especially because of their proximity to everyday activities.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, Learning, Emotion and Decision Group, Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center, University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Megías
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, Learning, Emotion and Decision Group, Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center, University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: Juan Francisco
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Navas
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, Learning, Emotion and Decision Group, Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center, University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: Dafina
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Petrova
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, Learning, Emotion and Decision Group, Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center, University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cándido
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, Learning, Emotion and Decision Group, Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center, University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Maldonado
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, Learning, Emotion and Decision Group, Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center, University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: Rocio
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Garcia-Retamero
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, Learning, Emotion and Decision Group, Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center, University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: Andrés
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Catena
mesh_terms: D001334:Automobile Driving; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012309:Risk-Taking; D013998:Time Perception / Q000502:physiology; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Automatic Processing; Driving; Risk perception; Traffic Psychology; Urgent behavior; fMRI