Decision-making in the (stressed) brain

Abstract

Numerous components determine reward processing and decision-making, and numerous influences modify this processing: Reward valuation, reward prediction, risk calculation and feedback evaluation are some of them. Hemodynamic studies demonstrate which brain regions are active in decision-making. Knowledge about how these factors develop their impact over time or about how they are inter-related is still insufficient.In a series of magnetoencephalographic studies, cortical correlates of decision-making were examined using one non-social gambling design and two bargaining variants with either a cooperative teammate or an aggressive opponent. Samples included healthy students and psychiatric patients who had experienced different amounts of early life stress.In sum, these studies give first evidence about the sequence of temporo-spatial activity before, during, and after decision-making processes. Moreover, insights on the role of risk processing and the weighting of different decision strategies have been accumulated; and early life stress influences and those of (stressful) social context have been considered.