Citation

Paulus MP, Rogalsky C, Simmons A, Feinstein JS, Stein MB. Neuroimage 2003; 19(4): 1439-1448.

Affiliation

Laboratory of Biological Dynamics and Theoretical Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0603, USA. martin@mag.ucsd.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

12948701

Abstract

Decision making and risk taking are interrelated processes that are important for daily functioning. The somatic marker hypothesis has provided a conceptual basis for processes involved in risk-taking decision making and has been used to link discrete neural substrates to risk-related behaviors. This investigation examined the hypothesis that the degree of risk-taking is related to the degree of activation in the insular cortex. Seventeen healthy, right-handed subjects performed a risk-taking decision-making task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) using a fast event-related design. This investigation yielded three main findings. First, right insula (BA 13) activation was significantly stronger when subjects selected a "risky" response versus selecting a "safe" response. Second, the degree of insula activation was related to the probability of selecting a "safe" response following a punished response. Third, the degree of insula activation was related to the subjects' degree of harm avoidance and neuroticism as measured by the TCI and NEO personality questionnaires, respectively. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that insula activation serves as a critical neural substrate to instantiate aversive somatic markers that guide risk-taking decision-making behavior.

Language: en