Ding Tao, Xian Peihua, Jin Shuai, Liu Zhiyuan, You Xuqun
Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Behavior and Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China.
Hum Brain Mapp. 2025 Aug 1;46(11):e70295. doi: 10.1002/hbm.70295.
Risky decision-making, a ubiquitous aspect of human behavior, primarily encompasses two behavioral tendencies: risk seeking and risk aversion. Despite extensive exploration of the neural mechanisms involved in risk decision-making, the specific neural activity patterns underlying risk seeking and risk aversion, along with their dynamic regulatory mechanisms, remain unclear. This study employed a comprehensive meta-analysis approach that includes 43 risk seeking and 22 risk aversion whole-brain experiments to explore the neural basis and functional networks of risk seeking and risk aversion. The results indicated that risk seeking was associated with activations in the right insula and left caudate, whereas risk aversion was related to activations in the left middle temporal gyrus (MTG) and left anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Further analyses showed that risk seeking primarily was linked to the reward network, salience network, and cognitive control network, while risk aversion primarily was involved in the cognitive control network and valuation network. These findings lend support to the dual-system theory, wherein risk seeking is predominantly influenced by the emotional system, whereas risk aversion is primarily driven by the cognitive system. Our study offers a novel perspective on the neural mechanisms underpinning risky decision-making and provides a theoretical foundation for interventions aimed at individuals with decision-making impairments.
风险决策是人类行为中普遍存在的一个方面，主要包括两种行为倾向：风险寻求和风险规避。尽管对参与风险决策的神经机制进行了广泛探索，但风险寻求和风险规避背后的具体神经活动模式及其动态调节机制仍不清楚。本研究采用了一种综合荟萃分析方法，包括43项风险寻求和22项风险规避的全脑实验，以探索风险寻求和风险规避的神经基础及功能网络。结果表明，风险寻求与右侧脑岛和左侧尾状核的激活有关，而风险规避与左侧颞中回（MTG）和左侧前扣带回皮质（ACC）的激活有关。进一步分析表明，风险寻求主要与奖赏网络、突显网络和认知控制网络相关，而风险规避主要涉及认知控制网络和评估网络。这些发现支持了双系统理论，即风险寻求主要受情感系统影响，而风险规避主要由认知系统驱动。我们的研究为风险决策背后的神经机制提供了新的视角，并为针对决策受损个体的干预措施提供了理论基础。
