Time Course of Neural Process of Certain and Uncertain Punishment in Decision Making

Little is known about how people evaluate certain and uncertain punishment. This study utilizes EEG technology to explore the cognitive processing mechanisms involved in the threat of punishment within economic game scenarios. Specifically, it investigates the impact of punishment uncertainty, integrating economic game paradigms with electric shock stimuli. FRN, P300, and SPN reflect the attention and readiness of the neural system during the anticipation of punishment. The results showed that the shock cue elicited a larger FRN and P300 than the uncertain cue, while there was no significant difference in SPN, during the anticipation for potential shock. The self-rating indicated that the uncertain cue triggered the most negative effect, and the pain-related P2 revealed that the uncertain cue increased pain perception, implying that uncertain punishment was more threatening than certain punishment. The single-trial analysis of EEG power with the linear mixed-effects model further supports these findings. This study demonstrates that, by strategically manipulating the uncertainty of the punishment, one can achieve a high-threat effect at a lower cost.