Age differences in the neural basis of decision-making under uncertainty

被引:0
作者
Loreen Tisdall
Rui Mata
机构
[1] University of Basel,Center for Cognitive and Decision Sciences
来源
Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience | 2023年 / 23卷
关键词
Aging; Brain; Uncertainty; Risk; Ambiguity; BART; Temporal discounting;
D O I
暂无
中图分类号
学科分类号
摘要
Humans globally are reaping the benefits of longer lives. Yet, longer life spans also require engaging with consequential but often uncertain decisions well into old age. Previous research has yielded mixed findings with regards to life span differences in how individuals make decisions under uncertainty. One factor contributing to the heterogeneity of findings is the diversity of paradigms that cover different aspects of uncertainty and tap into different cognitive and affective mechanisms. In this study, 175 participants (53.14% females, mean age = 44.9 years, SD = 19.0, age range = 16 to 81) completed functional neuroimaging versions of two prominent paradigms in this area, the Balloon Analogue Risk Task and the Delay Discounting Task. Guided by neurobiological accounts of age-related changes in decision-making under uncertainty, we examined age effects on neural activation differences in decision-relevant brain structures, and compared these across multiple contrasts for the two paradigms using specification curve analysis. In line with theoretical predictions, we find age differences in nucleus accumbens, anterior insula, and medial prefrontal cortex, but the results vary across paradigm and contrasts. Our results are in line with existing theories of age differences in decision making and their neural substrates, yet also suggest the need for a broader research agenda that considers how both individual and task characteristics determine the way humans deal with uncertainty.
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页码:788 / 808
页数:20
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