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Updated: Sep 28, 2025

Cerebellar Regional Dissection for Molecular Analysis
Published on: December 5, 2020
Cerebellum anatomy predicts individual risk-taking behavior and risk tolerance
Peng Quan1, Lisheng He2, Tianxin Mao3
1Research Center for Quality of Life and Applied Psychology, Guangdong Medical University, Dongguan, China; Center for Functional Neuroimaging, Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Room D502, Richards Medical Research Building, 3700 Hamilton Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
Abstract:
Human risk tolerance is highly idiosyncratic and individuals often show distinctive preferences when faced with similar risky situations. However, the neural underpinnings of individual differences in risk-taking remain unclear. Here we combined structural and perfusion MRI and examined the associations between brain anatomy and individual risk-taking behavior/risk tolerance in a sample of 115 healthy participants during the Balloon Analogue Risk Task, a well-established sequential risky decision paradigm. Both whole brain and region-of-interest analyses showed that the left cerebellum gray matter volume (GMV) has a strong association with individual risk-taking behavior and risk tolerance, outperforming the previously reported associations with the amygdala and right posterior parietal cortex (PPC) GMV. Left cerebellum GMV also accounted for risk tolerance and risk-taking behavior changes with aging. However, regional cerebral blood flow (CBF) provided no additional predictive power. These findings suggest a novel cerebellar anatomical contribution to individual differences in risk tolerance. Further studies are necessary to elucidate the underestimated important role of cerebellum in risk-taking.
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