Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, University College London, London, UK.
Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, UK.
Sci Rep. 2023 Apr 4;13(1):5534. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-31738-x.
Humans exhibit distinct risk preferences when facing choices involving potential gains and losses. These preferences are believed to be subject to neuromodulatory influence, particularly from dopamine and serotonin. As neuromodulators manifest circadian rhythms, this suggests decision making under risk might be affected by time of day. Here, in a large subject sample collected using a smartphone application, we found that risky options with potential losses were increasingly chosen over the course of the day. We observed this result in both a within-subjects design (N = 2599) comparing risky options chosen earlier and later in the day in the same individuals, and in a between-subjects design (N = 26,720) showing our effect generalizes across ages and genders. Using computational modelling, we show this diurnal change in risk preference reflects a decrease in sensitivity to increasing losses, but no change was observed in the relative impacts of gains and losses on choice (i.e., loss aversion). Thus, our findings reveal a striking diurnal modulation in human decision making, a pattern with potential importance for real-life decisions that include voting, medical decisions, and financial investments.
当面临涉及潜在收益和损失的选择时，人类表现出明显的风险偏好。这些偏好被认为受到神经调质的影响，特别是多巴胺和血清素。由于神经调质表现出昼夜节律，这表明风险决策可能会受到一天中时间的影响。在这里，我们使用智能手机应用程序收集了大量的样本，发现随着一天的进行，潜在损失的风险选择越来越多。我们在一项个体内设计（N=2599）中观察到了这一结果，即在同一组个体中比较了一天中较早和较晚选择的风险选择，并且在一项个体间设计（N=26720）中表明我们的效果在年龄和性别之间具有普遍性。使用计算建模，我们表明这种风险偏好的昼夜变化反映了对增加损失的敏感性降低，但在收益和损失对选择的相对影响（即损失厌恶）方面没有观察到变化。因此，我们的发现揭示了人类决策中的显著昼夜调节模式，这种模式对于包括投票、医疗决策和金融投资在内的现实生活决策具有潜在的重要性。
