Decision Making and Ratio Processing in Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology
• Gerontology

Background:

• Advantageous decision-making is crucial for daily life.
• Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) can affect cognitive functions, including decision-making under risk.
• Understanding these deficits is vital for developing targeted interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess decision-making under risk in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).
• To investigate the relationship between decision-making, ratio processing, numerical abilities, and executive functions in MCI.
• To compare the performance of MCI patients and healthy controls on various decision-making tasks.

Main Methods:

• A cohort of 22 MCI patients and 29 healthy controls participated.
• Participants completed the Game of Dice Task-Double (GDT-D) for complex risk decision-making.
• Tasks assessing basic decision-making under risk, ratio processing, and executive functions were administered.

Main Results:

• MCI patients performed significantly worse than controls on the GDT-D, showing lower net scores and mean expected values.
• Performance on the GDT-D correlated with ratio processing and executive function measures in the overall sample.
• MCI patients and controls performed comparably on basic decision-making tasks but differed in complex scenarios.

Conclusions:

• MCI patients exhibit sub-optimal decision-making in complex risk situations.
• Ratio processing and executive functions significantly influence decision-making in both MCI patients and healthy adults.
• Cognitive interventions for MCI should emphasize executive functions and ratio processing to improve complex decision-making.