Liu Zhiyuan, Li Lin, Zheng Li, Hu Zengxi, Roberts Ian D, Guo Xiuyan, Yang Guang
Shanghai Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Department of Physics, East China Normal University, Shanghai, SH, China.
School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, SH, China.
Neuroscience. 2016 Jul 7;327:136-45. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2016.04.018. Epub 2016 Apr 19.
Regret and relief are associated with counterfactual thinking and are sensitive to various social contexts. In the present fMRI study, we investigated the neural basis for regret and relief and how social context (following vs. not following advice) modulates them by employing a sequential risk-taking task. Participants were asked to open a series of boxes consecutively until they decided to stop. Each box contained a reward (gold), except for one that contained an adverse stimulus (devil), which caused the participant to lose all the gold collected in that trial. Before each trial, participants received advice about when to stop, which they then chose to follow or not. Behaviorally, subjective regret and relief were primarily dependent on the number of missed chances and the trade-off between obtained gains and missed chances, respectively. Participants felt less regret when they chose not to follow the advice than when they did. At the neural level, striatum, vmPFC/mOFC, and vACC activations were associated with greater relief. Meanwhile, dmPFC and left superior temporal gyrus were associated with greater regret. Additionally, dACC showed stronger activation in the Not-Follow context than the Follow context.
后悔和宽慰与反事实思维相关，并且对各种社会情境敏感。在当前的功能磁共振成像（fMRI）研究中，我们通过采用一个连续冒险任务，研究了后悔和宽慰的神经基础，以及社会情境（遵循与不遵循建议）如何对它们进行调节。参与者被要求连续打开一系列盒子，直到他们决定停止。每个盒子都装有一个奖励（金币），但有一个盒子装有不利刺激物（魔鬼），这会导致参与者失去该试验中收集的所有金币。在每次试验前，参与者会收到关于何时停止的建议，然后他们选择遵循或不遵循该建议。在行为层面，主观后悔和宽慰分别主要取决于错过机会的数量以及获得的收益与错过机会之间的权衡。参与者选择不遵循建议时比遵循建议时感到的后悔更少。在神经层面，纹状体、腹内侧前额叶皮质/眶额皮质（vmPFC/mOFC）和前扣带回腹侧（vACC）的激活与更大程度的宽慰相关。与此同时，背内侧前额叶皮质（dmPFC）和左侧颞上回与更大程度的后悔相关。此外，背侧前扣带回（dACC）在不遵循情境中的激活比遵循情境中更强。
