Neural circuitry involved in quitting after repeated failures: role of the cingulate and temporal parietal junction.
The more times people fail the more likely they are to give up, however little is known about the neural mechanisms underlying this impact of repeated failure on decision making. Here we have used a visual shape discrimination task with computer-controlled feedback combined with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neural circuits involved. The behavioral task confirmed that the more times subjects experienced failure the more likely they were to give up, with three successive failures being the key threshold and the majority of subjects reaching the point where they decided to quit and try a new stimulus set after three or four failures. The fMRI analysis revealed activity changes in frontal, parietal, temporal, limbic and striatal regions, especially anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and temporal parietal junction (TPJ) associated with the number of previous failures experienced. Furthermore, their parameter estimates were predictive of subjects' quitting rate. Thus, subjects reach the point where they decide to quit after three/four failures and this is associated with differential changes in brain regions involved in error monitoring and reward which regulate both failure detection and changes in decision-making strategy.
School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
Weihua
W
Zhao
Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, Center for Information in Medicine, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China.
Keith M
KM
Kendrick
School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
Fei
F
Chen
School of Psychology and Sociology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
Hong
H
Li
School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.|Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Ministry of Education, Chongqing 400715, China.
Tingyong
T
Feng
D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D001931:Brain Mapping; D025461:Feedback, Physiological; D005260:Female; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009434:Neural Pathways; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult