Dissociable neural processes underlying risky decisions for self versus other

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Decision Science
• Cognitive Psychology

Background:

• Previous neuroimaging research primarily examined self-focused decision-making.
• Limited neurobiological evidence exists on how decisions for others diverge from self-decisions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To directly compare neural mechanisms underlying risky decision-making for oneself versus another person.
• To investigate behavioral and brain differences in self- versus other-oriented financial choices.

Main Methods:

• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was employed to scan participants during a gambling task.
• Participants made choices between low-risk (±10 points) and high-risk (±90 points) options with varying probabilities, for themselves or another person.

Main Results:

• Self-decisions exhibited risk aversion at low probabilities and risk seeking at high probabilities, unlike other-decisions.
• Brain activity showed greater engagement of reward-related regions for self-decisions.
• Theory of Mind (ToM) regions were more active during decisions for others.

Conclusions:

• Decisions for self and others recruit distinct neural processes.
• Self-decisions are linked to affective/impulsive processes, while other-decisions involve cognitive/regulatory processes.
• Amygdala activation correlated with self-value computation, whereas DMPFC activation correlated with other-value computation.