Neuroscience
Wow, another study in The Annals of the Incrediby Obvious has appeared in Science. Why do I think it's time for me to give up and go home, you ask??
People typically exhibit greater sensitivity to losses than to equivalent gains when making decisions. We investigated neural correlates of loss aversion while individuals decided whether to accept or reject gambles that offered a 50/50 chance of gaining or losing money. A broad set of areas (including midbrain dopaminergic regions and their targets) showed increasing activity as potential gains increased. Potential losses were represented by decreasing activity in several of these same gain-sensitive areas. Finally, individual differences in behavioral loss aversion were predicted by a measure of neural loss aversion in several regions, including the ventral striatum and prefrontal cortex.
Sigh.
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Neuroscience
Gambling Made Easy
Wow, another study in The Annals of the Incrediby Obvious has appeared in Science. Why do I think it's time for me to give up and go home, you ask??
People More Cautious Than Reckless When GamblingTom SM, Fox CR, Trepel C, Poldrack RA. The Neural Basis of Loss Aversion in Decision-Making Under Risk. Science 315: 515-518.
. . .
The study, detailed in the Jan. 26 issue of the journal Science, also revealed that people respond more strongly to potential losses than potential gains. Thinking about the possibility of winning money turns on some of the same areas of the brain that are activated when people take cocaine, eat chocolate or look at a beautiful face, explained study team member Russell Poldrack.
These "reward centers" of the brain that get turned on when we think about winning money get turned off when we think about losing money. [NOTE: No! You don't say!!]
"You turn down the reward areas of the brain, and you turn them down more strongly for losses than you turn them up for gains," Poldrack said.
. . .
People typically exhibit greater sensitivity to losses than to equivalent gains when making decisions. We investigated neural correlates of loss aversion while individuals decided whether to accept or reject gambles that offered a 50/50 chance of gaining or losing money. A broad set of areas (including midbrain dopaminergic regions and their targets) showed increasing activity as potential gains increased. Potential losses were represented by decreasing activity in several of these same gain-sensitive areas. Finally, individual differences in behavioral loss aversion were predicted by a measure of neural loss aversion in several regions, including the ventral striatum and prefrontal cortex.
Sigh.
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One of psychology's major contributions has been to document the myriad ways our thinking is sent haywire by a series of biases. Investigations into the ways and means to combat these biases have lagged behind, but that's starting to change. Now...
- Psychological Titbits From The 38th Society For Neuroscience Annual Meeting Held In Washington Dc Last Month
An afternoon nap could boost your associative memory skills. William Fishbein and Hiuyan Lau (City University of New York) tested participants' ability to remember the English meanings of familiar Chinese characters they'd learned earlier and...
- Ouch, That's Expensive!
As well as hurting your wallet, your brain expects an expensive product to cause you pain too. Researchers have found that in terms of brain activity, whether or not we choose to make a purchase is reflected in a trade-off between regions of the brain...
- Employment Opportunity As A Professional Fmri Subject
Apply now! Or at least, that's the implication of this BBC story about the latest neuroimaging paper (Fliessbach et al., 2007) in Science: Men motivated by 'superior wage' [NOTE: so I guess women aren't, eh? we don't know, since they...
- Is It Bad To Gamble When Sleep Deprived?
In the annals of the incredibly obvious, researchers have shown that "late-night gambling is a risky game": Obviousman by Wiley Miller Blame boneheaded bets on your tired brain Scientists pinpoint why late-night gamblers lose big time By Linda Carroll...