Dartmouth College, USA.
Neuroimage. 2013 Jan 1;64:582-9. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.08.078. Epub 2012 Sep 5.
The process of comparing obtained outcomes to alternative possible outcomes, known as counterfactual thinking, is inescapable in daily life; however, the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying counterfactual thinking and how they influence emotional responses to better and worse outcomes is not well understood. We conducted an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) gambling study in which participants were informed of two equally possible outcomes of a card gamble before they selected a card. Participants reported experiencing mixed emotions (i.e., both positive and negative affect) for disappointing wins (winning the lesser of two amounts) and relieving losses (losing the lesser of two amounts). Neuroimaging results supported the hypothesis that these mixed emotions were associated with activation of a fronto-parietal network, which subsequently influenced processing in reward and punishment regions (dorsal and ventral striatum, right anterior insula). The fronto-parietal network was sensitive to outcomes that resulted in mixed emotions, whereas reward and punishment regions were sensitive to comparisons between obtained and unobtained outcomes. These findings provide insight into the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying the mixed emotional experiences that result from counterfactual comparisons, and inform our understanding of how the brain is optimized to use the wealth of environmental information to inform current and future behavior.
将获得的结果与替代的可能结果进行比较的过程，称为反事实思维，在日常生活中是不可避免的；然而，反事实思维的神经认知机制以及它们如何影响对更好和更糟结果的情绪反应还不是很清楚。我们进行了一项与事件相关的功能磁共振成像（fMRI）赌博研究，在参与者选择卡片之前，他们被告知卡片赌博的两个同样可能的结果。参与者报告对令人失望的胜利（赢得两个数额中的较小者）和缓解的损失（损失两个数额中的较小者）产生混合情绪（即积极和消极的影响）。神经影像学结果支持了这样一种假设，即这些混合情绪与额顶网络的激活有关，随后影响了奖励和惩罚区域（背侧和腹侧纹状体、右前岛叶）的加工。额顶网络对导致混合情绪的结果敏感，而奖励和惩罚区域对获得和未获得的结果之间的比较敏感。这些发现为反事实比较导致的混合情绪体验的神经认知机制提供了深入了解，并告知我们大脑如何优化利用丰富的环境信息来指导当前和未来的行为。
