This project proposes a series of experiments that will contribute to the burgeoning field of neuroeconomics, which attempts understand the component processes of decision-making by examining both behavior and the underlying neural substrates. The proposed studies seek to begin specifying the mechanisms of decisions, in particular the cognitive and emotional components that make up the decision-making process. Emotional influences on decision-making have been largely ignored for many years, but recent interest in how our emotional states can affect the type of decisions we make offer an exciting opportunity to broaden our knowledge of this most important process. Specifically, the proposed experiments will use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure brain function of people engaged in economic decision- making. This proposal builds on previous work by the author examining the cognitive and emotional processes underlying human decision-making. In a prior study, we found reliable, independent patterns of neural activity corresponding to emotional and cognitive biases in a well-studied task of economic decision- making known as the Ultimatum Game. In this game, participants are placed in a consequential social interaction with another person, and decisions are made which correspond to emotional or cognitive motives. In the present proposal, hypotheses generated in this previous study will be systematically tested, and pilot data generated for future research submissions. The degree to which emotion and cognition affect decisions will be explored in greater depth, via the use of variants of the Ultimatum Game and fMRI. This research will also have broader implications for assessment and treatment of, neurological and psychiatric disorders that are often accompanied by poor decision-making abilities. A fuller understanding of the processes and structures involved in normal decision-making may greatly help characterize the decision-making deficits of patients suffering from these disorders and suggest avenues for the future treatment. ? ? ?
| van 't Wout, Mascha; Sanfey, Alan G (2011) Interactive decision-making in people with schizotypal traits: a game theory approach. Psychiatry Res 185:92-6 |
| Chang, Luke J; Smith, Alec; Dufwenberg, Martin et al. (2011) Triangulating the neural, psychological, and economic bases of guilt aversion. Neuron 70:560-72 |
| Harle, Katia M; Allen, John J B; Sanfey, Alan G (2010) The impact of depression on social economic decision making. J Abnorm Psychol 119:440-6 |
| van't Wout, Mascha; Chang, Luke J; Sanfey, Alan G (2010) The influence of emotion regulation on social interactive decision-making. Emotion 10:815-21 |
| Harle, Katia M; Sanfey, Alan G (2007) Incidental sadness biases social economic decisions in the Ultimatum Game. Emotion 7:876-81 |
