Publication Date:
2002-03-23
Description:
We report the observation of neural processing that occurs within 265 milliseconds after outcome stimuli that inform human participants about gains and losses in a gambling task. A negative-polarity event-related brain potential, probably generated by a medial-frontal region in or near the anterior cingulate cortex, was greater in amplitude when a participant's choice between two alternatives resulted in a loss than when it resulted in a gain. The sensitivity to losses was not simply a reflection of detecting an error; gains did not elicit the medial-frontal activity when the alternative choice would have yielded a greater gain, and losses elicited the activity even when the alternative choice would have yielded a greater loss. Choices made after losses were riskier and were associated with greater loss-related activity than choices made after gains. It follows that medial-frontal computations may contribute to mental states that participate in higher level decisions, including economic choices.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Gehring, William J -- Willoughby, Adrian R -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2002 Mar 22;295(5563):2279-82.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, 525 East University, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1109, USA. wgehring@umich.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11910116" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Adult
;
Choice Behavior/*physiology
;
*Economics
;
Electroencephalography
;
Evoked Potentials/physiology
;
Female
;
Gambling/*psychology
;
Gyrus Cinguli/*physiology
;
Humans
;
Male
;
Time Factors
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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