Common and distinct brain activity associated with risky and ambiguous decision-making

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroimaging

Background:

• Decision-making (DM) under uncertainty involves distinct processes: risky-DM (known probabilities) and ambiguous-DM (unknown probabilities).
• Previous neuroimaging studies suggest differing brain activations for risky versus ambiguous choices, but a comprehensive understanding of their neural correlates and specificity is lacking.
• Perceptual-DM serves as a crucial control condition to isolate DM-specific brain activity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct multiple meta-analyses of neuroimaging data to map common and distinct brain activity during risky-, ambiguous-, and perceptual-DM.
• To clarify the neurobiological underpinnings of different types of uncertain decision-making.
• To explore alterations in brain activity related to risky-DM in substance users compared to non-users.

Main Methods:

• Performed multiple meta-analyses on neuroimaging results from 151 studies.
• Characterized common and domain-specific brain activity across risky-, ambiguous-, and perceptual-DM tasks.
• Utilized objective functional decoding to interpret the roles of activated brain regions.

Main Results:

• Convergent activity across all DM tasks was observed in the salience, valuation, and executive control networks.
• Risky-DM (vs. perceptual-DM) showed convergent activity in the striatum and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), linked to reward processes.
• Ambiguous-DM (vs. perceptual-DM) demonstrated activity convergence in the lateral prefrontal cortex and insula, associated with cognitive control and behavioral responding.
• Substance users exhibited reduced convergent activity in the striatum, cingulate, and thalamus during risky-DM compared to non-users.

Conclusions:

• Findings suggest a neural dissociation between risky- and ambiguous-DM, reflecting differential functional roles.
• Specific brain alterations in substance users during risky-DM may contribute to impaired decision-making.
• This research provides a neurobiological framework for understanding varied responses to uncertainty and the impact of substance use disorders.