Tonic activity level in the right prefrontal cortex predicts individuals' risk taking

Gianotti, Lorena; Knoch, Daria; Faber, Pascal L; Lehmann, Dietrich; Pascual-Marqui, Roberto D; Diezi, Christa; Schoch, Cornelia; Eisenegger, Christoph; Fehr, Ernst (2009). Tonic activity level in the right prefrontal cortex predicts individuals' risk taking. Psychological science, 20(1), pp. 33-38. Sage Publications 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02260.x

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Human risk taking is characterized by a large amount of individual heterogeneity. In this study, we applied resting-state electroencephalography, which captures stable individual differences in neural activity, before subjects performed a risk-taking task. Using a source-localization technique, we found that the baseline cortical activity in the right prefrontal cortex predicts individual risk-taking behavior. Individuals with higher baseline cortical activity in this brain area display more risk aversion than do other individuals. This finding demonstrates that neural characteristics that are stable over time can predict a highly complex behavior such as risk-taking behavior and furthermore suggests that hypoactivity in the right prefrontal cortex might serve as a dispositional indicator of lower regulatory abilities, which is expressed in greater risk-taking behavior.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Psychology > Social Neuroscience and Social Psychology

UniBE Contributor:

Gianotti, Lorena, Knoch, Daria

Subjects:

100 Philosophy > 150 Psychology

ISSN:

0956-7976

Publisher:

Sage Publications

Language:

English

Submitter:

Lorena Gianotti

Date Deposited:

24 Dec 2014 10:21

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:38

Publisher DOI:

10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02260.x

PubMed ID:

19152538

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.61180

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/61180

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