Department of Neuroradiology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
Neuropsychologia. 2010 Nov;48(13):3901-8. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.09.019. Epub 2010 Sep 25.
An important aspect of cognitive functioning is decision-making, which depends on the correct interpretation of emotional processes. High trait anxiety has been associated with increased risk taking behavior in decision-making tasks. An interesting fact is that anxiety and anxiety-related chemosignals as well as decision-making share similar regions of neuronal activation. In order to ascertain if chemosensory anxiety signals have similar effects on risk taking behavior of healthy participants as high trait anxiety we used a novel computerized decision-making task, called Haegler's Risk Game (HRG). This task measures risk taking behavior based on contingencies and can be played repeatedly without a learning effect. To obtain chemosensory signals the sweat of 21 male donors was collected in a high rope course (anxiety condition). For the chemosensory control condition sweat was collected during an ergometer workout (exercise condition). In a double-blind study, 30 healthy recipients (16 females) had to play HRG while being exposed to sweat samples or empty control samples (control condition) in three sessions of randomized order. Comparison of the risk taking behavior of the three conditions showed significantly higher risk taking behavior in participants for the most risky choices during the anxiety condition compared to the control conditions. Additionally, recipients showed significantly higher latency before making their decision in the most risky choices during the anxiety condition. This experiment gives evidence that chemosensory anxiety signals are communicated between humans thereby increasing participants' risk taking behavior.
认知功能的一个重要方面是决策，而决策取决于对情绪过程的正确解读。高特质焦虑与决策任务中的冒险行为增加有关。一个有趣的事实是，焦虑和与焦虑相关的化学信号以及决策都共享神经元激活的相似区域。为了确定化学感官焦虑信号是否对健康参与者的冒险行为有与高特质焦虑相同的影响，我们使用了一种新的计算机化决策任务，称为 Haegler 的风险游戏（HRG）。该任务基于偶然性来衡量冒险行为，并且可以在没有学习效应的情况下重复进行。为了获得化学感官信号，在高绳课程（焦虑条件）中收集了 21 名男性捐赠者的汗水。对于化学感官对照条件，在测功机锻炼（运动条件）期间收集汗水。在一项双盲研究中，30 名健康接受者（16 名女性）必须在三个随机顺序的会话中暴露于汗液样本或空对照样本（对照条件）下玩 HRG。比较三种条件下的冒险行为，发现在焦虑条件下，参与者在最冒险的选择中表现出明显更高的冒险行为，与对照条件相比。此外，在最冒险的选择中，接受者在做出决策之前的潜伏期明显更长。该实验证明，化学感官焦虑信号在人与人之间传递，从而增加了参与者的冒险行为。
