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Measuring the Subjective Value of Risky and Ambiguous Options using Experimental Economics and Functional MRI Methods
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Published on: September 19, 2012

Beyond risk and ambiguity: deciding under ignorance.

Helen Pushkarskaya1, Xun Liu, Michael Smithson

  • 1Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucy 40546-0276, USA. helen.pushkarskaya@uky.edu

Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience
|September 1, 2010
PubMed
Summary

Different types of uncertainty, ambiguity and sample space ignorance (SSI), engage distinct brain regions. Decision-making theories need to account for individual differences in tolerance for missing information.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Decision Science

Background:

  • Decision making often involves navigating uncertainty, categorized as ambiguity (vague probabilities) and sample space ignorance (SSI; unknown outcomes).
  • Current decision-making theories propose a reductive approach, simplifying complex uncertainties into more manageable forms, such as reducing SSI to ambiguity.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the distinct neural underpinnings of decision making under ambiguity versus SSI.
  • To evaluate whether existing decision-making theories accurately predict neural responses across different uncertainty types and individual differences.

Main Methods:

  • Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was employed to observe brain activity during decision-making tasks involving ambiguity and SSI.
  • Participants' responses were analyzed in relation to their individual tolerance for ambiguity and missing information.

Main Results:

  • Ambiguity uniquely activated the left insula.
  • SSI uniquely activated the anterior cingulate cortex, bilateral inferior parietal cortex, and lateral orbitofrontal cortex.
  • The reductive view of decision making was only supported in ambiguity-averse individuals, not ambiguity-tolerant ones.

Conclusions:

  • Distinct neural substrates support decision making under ambiguity and SSI, challenging purely reductive models.
  • Individual differences in tolerance for missing information significantly modulate neural engagement during uncertain decision making.
  • Future theories of decision making under uncertainty must incorporate individual variability and its neural correlates.