Decision-Making in Individuals with Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum: Expectancy-Valence in the Iowa Gambling Task

Individuals with agenesis of the corpus callosum (ACC) can have intelligence within the normal range, but nevertheless have deficiencies in decision-making and complex novel problem-solving. The specific nature of these problems is not yet clearly understood. The Iowa Gambling Task was used to test decision-making ability and problem-solving in 40 individuals with complete or partial ACC (full-scale intelligence quotient 80) and 26 control participants. The expectancy-valence (EV) model was applied to the trial-by-trial responses of each participant to elucidate differences in decision processes utilized by each group. The ACC group had a lower overall net gain and fewer advantageous choices than controls, but these differences were not statistically significant. Within the EV model, individuals with ACC exhibited significantly higher attention to losses, less consistency in their choice strategy, and greater frequency of switching between decks. They also showed a tendency to be more influenced by recent trials. This outcome is similar to that seen in individuals with Aspergers disorder. Taken together, these results suggest that individuals with ACC have difficulty in inferring game contingencies and forming a coherent selection strategy, implicating the corpus callosum in these decision processes.