Mulay Revati, Doehring Niels, Javaheri Negin, Erhard Peter, Herrmann Manfred
Department of Neuropsychology and Behavioral Neurobiology, University of Bremen, Cognium, Hochschulring 18, 28359, Bremen, Germany.
DFG GRK2739/1 Research Training Group: KD2School-Designing Adaptive Systems for Economic Decisions, Bremen, Germany.
Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2025 May 28. doi: 10.3758/s13415-025-01304-1.
Identifying neural markers might help to investigate the specific effects of stress on risky decision-making and to understand the behavioral interventions for risk adjustment. It is proposed that stress makes decision-making less deliberate. We employ fMRI to investigate this, with stress and post-stress decision-making occurring during the same fMRI session with a minimal stress-to-decision-making latency and concurrent electrodermal activity (EDA) measurement. In this within-subject study (40 participants, 18 males, M = 24.6 ± 3.9 years), participants performed the "decision-making under risk" task twice: immediately following stress induction, and after a control condition. The order of the stress and control conditions was counterbalanced. Stress was induced by asking participants to solve mental arithmetic tasks under time pressure while receiving negative feedback. During the decision-making task, participants chose between a safe and a risky option with monetary incentives. Behavioral and EDA (n = 34; due to technical issues) data confirmed that stress induction was successfully implemented. Participants took less risky decisions post-stress than post-control. An fMRI contrast analysis revealed that the right fronto-opercular and the left anterior part of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) exhibited significantly lower activation during decisions post-stress than decisions post-control. The results indicate that decisions taken immediately after exposure to the acute stressor are less risky. Furthermore, decisions post-stress are associated with reduced activation in the regions of the dlPFC, possibly leading to lower cognitive control and less deliberate decision-making post-stress. Interventions to increase dlPFC activation might be suitable to improve the decision-making post-stress.
识别神经标志物可能有助于研究压力对风险决策的具体影响，并理解风险调整的行为干预措施。有人提出，压力会使决策变得不那么审慎。我们采用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）来对此进行研究，压力和压力后的决策在同一次fMRI扫描过程中进行，压力与决策之间的延迟最短，并同时测量皮肤电活动（EDA）。在这项受试者内研究（40名参与者，18名男性，平均年龄M = 24.6 ± 3.9岁）中，参与者进行了两次“风险下决策”任务：在压力诱导后立即进行，以及在对照条件后进行。压力条件和对照条件的顺序是平衡的。通过要求参与者在时间压力下解决心算任务并同时接收负面反馈来诱导压力。在决策任务中，参与者在有金钱奖励的安全选项和风险选项之间进行选择。行为和EDA（n = 34；由于技术问题）数据证实压力诱导成功实施。与对照后相比，参与者在压力后做出的风险决策更少。fMRI对比分析显示，右侧额眶部和左侧背外侧前额叶皮层（dlPFC）的前部在压力后决策期间的激活明显低于对照后决策期间。结果表明，在暴露于急性应激源后立即做出的决策风险较小。此外，压力后决策与dlPFC区域激活减少有关，这可能导致压力后认知控制降低和决策不那么审慎。增加dlPFC激活的干预措施可能适合改善压力后的决策。
