Abstract：
Understanding the subprocesses of risky decision making is a prerequisite for understanding (dys-)functional decisions. For the present fMRI study, we designed a novel variant of the balloon-analog-risk task (BART) that measures three phases: decision making, reward anticipation, and feedback processing. Twenty-nine healthy young adults completed the BART. We analyzed neural activity and functional connectivity. Parametric modulation allowed assessing changes in brain functioning depending on the riskiness of the decision. Our results confirm involvement of nucleus accumbens, insula, anterior cingulate cortex, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in all subprocesses of risky decision-making. In addition, subprocesses were differentiated by the strength of activation in these regions, as well as by changes in activity and nucleus accumbens-connectivity by the riskiness of the decision. The presented fMRI-BART variant allows distinguishing activity and connectivity during the subprocesses of risky decision making and shows how activation and connectivity patterns relate to the riskiness of the decision. Hence, it is a useful tool for unraveling impairments in subprocesses of risky decision making in people with high risk behavior.
摘要：
了解风险决策的子过程是理解（功能失调）决策的前提。对于目前的功能磁共振成像研究，我们设计了一种气球模拟风险任务(BART)的新变体，测量三个阶段：决策，奖励预期，和反馈处理。29名健康的年轻人完成了BART。我们分析了神经活动和功能连接。参数调制允许根据决策的风险评估大脑功能的变化。我们的结果证实了伏隔核的参与，脑岛,前扣带皮质,和背外侧前额叶皮层在危险决策的所有亚过程。此外,子过程通过这些区域的激活强度来区分，以及通过活动和伏隔核连通性的变化决定的风险。提出的fMRI-BART变体允许在风险决策的子过程中区分活动和连通性，并显示激活和连通性模式如何与决策的风险相关。因此，它是一个有用的工具，用于揭示高风险行为人群风险决策子过程中的损伤。
