Laboratory of Brain Imaging, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland.
Laboratory of Action & Body, Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, UK.
Psychophysiology. 2021 Aug;58(8):e13840. doi: 10.1111/psyp.13840. Epub 2021 May 12.
Influential theories posit that bodily responses are important for decision-making under uncertainty. However, the evidence of the role of our ability to perceive subtle bodily changes (interoception) in decision-making under uncertainty is mixed. These differences may arise from the fact that uncertainty, a part of daily decision-making, can be fractionated into risk (known probabilities) and ambiguity (unknown probabilities). Here we examine the role of arousal and interoception in shaping risky and ambiguous decisions. We measured skin conductance responses and heart rate changes while participants (N = 40) made gambling decisions in the context of risky and ambiguous lotteries. Results reveal that the anticipation phase produced the largest arousal responses, suggesting that the anticipation is a major contributor to arousal during gambling behavior, regardless of the uncertainty type. Moreover, physiological responses were higher following positive outcomes than negative outcomes. We did not find any direct relation between interoceptive dimensions and the attitudes toward risk and ambiguity. However, in those with higher interoceptive accuracy, skin conductance responses differentiated between risk and ambiguity as well as between the gamble phases (decision, anticipation, and outcome). Together, our findings demonstrate that decision-making under uncertainty is to some extent associated with individual differences in the ability both to generate and to perceive accurately subtle changes in bodily arousal during the decision-making process. However, these changes seem to be moderately related to the type of uncertainty (risk or ambiguity).
有影响力的理论假设，身体反应对于不确定情况下的决策很重要。然而，在不确定情况下，我们感知微妙身体变化（内感受）的能力在决策中的作用的证据是混杂的。这些差异可能源于这样一个事实，即不确定性是日常决策的一部分，可以分为风险（已知概率）和模糊性（未知概率）。在这里，我们研究了唤醒和内感受在塑造风险和模糊决策中的作用。我们测量了皮肤电导反应和心率变化，同时参与者（N=40）在风险和模糊彩票的背景下做出赌博决策。结果表明，预期阶段产生了最大的唤醒反应，这表明无论不确定性类型如何，预期都是赌博行为中唤醒的主要贡献者。此外，积极结果后的生理反应高于消极结果。我们没有发现内感受维度与风险和模糊态度之间有任何直接关系。然而，在内感受准确性较高的人中，皮肤电导反应可以区分风险和模糊性，以及赌博阶段（决策、预期和结果）。总之，我们的研究结果表明，在某种程度上，不确定情况下的决策与个体在决策过程中产生和准确感知身体唤醒微妙变化的能力存在差异有关。然而，这些变化似乎与不确定性的类型（风险或模糊性）有一定的关系。
