Time-Varying Neural Oscillations Underlying the Foreign-Language Effect on Risk-Taking

Based on previous literature about foreign-language effects on decision-making, we measured neural oscillations involved in valenced feedback encoding and subsequent gambling process in native (Chinese) and foreign (English) languages. Results showed that gambling outcomes, notably positive outcomes, presented in English relative to Chinese increased alpha suppression, suggesting more attentional resources required in foreign-language processing. In the subsequent gambling process, theta synchronization decreased following positive feedback in English relative to that in Chinese, suggesting reduced emotional impacts on subsequent decision-making in the foreign-language context. This language difference correlated with that in alpha activity in positive feedback encoding and with that in the proportion of "play" choices following positive feedback. Exploratory mediation analysis revealed that the emotional significance of positive feedback might fully mediate the indirect effect of processing fluency on subsequent risk-taking behavior. Our findings provide new neural evidence for the established foreign-language effect on the hot-hand fallacy in risk-taking.