The precuneus may encode irrationality in human gambling.
Humans often make irrational decisions, especially psychiatric patients who have dysfunctional cognitive and emotional circuitry. Understanding the neural basis of decision-making is therefore essential towards patient management, yet current studies suffer from several limitations. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies in humans have dominated decision-making neuroscience, but have poor temporal resolution and the blood oxygenation level-dependent signal is only a proxy for neural activity. On the other hand, lesion studies in humans used to infer functionality in decision-making lack characterization of neural activity altogether. Using a combination of local field potential recordings in human subjects performing a financial decision-making task, spectral analyses, and non-parametric cluster statistics, we analyzed the activity in the precuneus. In nine subjects, the neural activity modulated significantly between rational and irrational trials in the precuneus (p <; 0.001). In particular, high-frequency activity (70-100 Hz) increased when irrational decisions were made. Although preliminary, these results suggest suppression of gamma rhythms via electrical stimulation in the precuneus as a therapeutic intervention for pathological decision-making.
P
P
Sacre
M S D
MS
Kerr
S
S
Subramanian
K
K
Kahn
J
J
Gonzalez-Martinez
M A
MA
Johnson
S V
SV
Sarma
J T
JT
Gale
D000328:Adult; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D005715:Gambling / Q000503:physiopathology*; D065818:Gamma Rhythm; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology* / Q000503:physiopathology