scholarly journals Expecting social punishment facilitates control over a decision under uncertainty by recruiting medial prefrontal cortex

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (11) ◽  
pp. 1260-1270
Author(s):  
Jaejoong Kim ◽  
Bumseok Jeong
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Neural Circuit ◽  
Correct Choice ◽  
Decision Under Uncertainty ◽  
Incorrect Choice ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
The Right ◽  
Optimization Mechanism

Abstract In many decision-making situations, sub-optimal choices are increased by uncertainty. However, when wrong choices could lead to social punishment, such as blame, people might try to improve their performance by minimizing sub-optimal choices, which could be achieved by increasing the subjective cost of errors, thereby globally reducing decision noise or reducing an uncertainty-induced component of decision noise. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, 46 participants performed a choice task in which the probability of a correct choice with a given cue and the conditional probability of blame feedback (by making an incorrect choice) changed continuously. By comparing computational models of behaviour, we found that participants optimized their performance by preferentially reducing a component of decision noise associated with uncertainty. Simultaneously, expecting blame significantly deteriorated participants’ mood. Model-based fMRI analyses and dynamic causal modelling indicate that the optimization mechanism based on the expectation of being blamed would be controlled by a neural circuit centred on the right medial prefrontal cortex. These results show novel behavioural and neural mechanisms regarding how humans optimize uncertain decisions under the expectation of being blamed.

scholarly journals Expecting social punishment facilitates control over a decision under uncertainty by recruiting medial prefrontal cortex

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaejoong Kim ◽  
Bumseok Jeong
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Neural Circuit ◽  
Computational Modelling ◽  
Causal Modeling ◽  
Optimal Decision ◽  
Stressful Situation ◽  
Decision Under Uncertainty ◽  
Incorrect Choice

AbstractIn many decision-making situations, uncertainty facilitates suboptimal choices. However, when individuals are in a socially dangerous situation such that wrong choice would lead to a social punishment such as blame of the supervisor, they might try to minimize suboptimal choices to avoid it. In this functional MRI study, 46 participants performed a choice task in which the probability of a correct choice with a given cue and the conditional probability of blame feedback (by making an incorrect choice) changed continuously. Using computational models of behavior, we found that participants optimized their decision by suppressing the decision noise induced by uncertainty. Simultaneously, expecting blame significantly deteriorated participants’ mood. Model-based fMRI analyses and dynamic causal modeling revealed that the optimization mechanism based on the expectation of being blamed was controlled by a neural circuit centered on right medial prefrontal cortex. These results show novel behavioral and neural mechanisms regarding how humans optimize uncertain decisions under the expectation of being blamed that negatively influences mood.Significance StatementPeople occasionally encounter a situation that forces us to make an optimal decision under uncertainty, which is difficult, and a failure to make a good choice might be blamed by their supervisor. Although it might be hard to make right decision, they make more effort to make a good decision, which might help them to escape from the aversive outcome. However, such kind of stressful situation influences our mood to be negative. Using the computational modelling, we showed that participants computed how it is likely to be blamed and this computation motivated people to control uncertainty-induced decision noise by recruiting a neural circuit centered on the medial prefrontal cortex. However, an expectation of being blamed significantly deteriorated participants’ mood.

scholarly journals Uncover the Offensive Side of Disparagement Humor: An fMRI Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Bartolo ◽  
Daniela Ballotta ◽  
Luca Nocetti ◽  
Patrizia Baraldi ◽  
Paolo Frigio Nichelli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Functional Data ◽  
Social Group ◽  
Dorsal Striatum ◽  
Verbal Stimuli ◽  
Disparagement Humor ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
The Right ◽  
Negative Feelings

Disparagement humor is a kind of humor that denigrates, belittles an individual or a social group. In the aim to unveil the offensive side of these kinds of jokes, we have run an event-related fMRI study asking 30 healthy volunteers to judge the level of fun of a series of verbal stimuli that ended with a sentence that was socially inappropriate but funny (disparagement joke -DJ), socially inappropriate but not funny (SI) or neutral (N). Behavioral results showed disparagement jokes are perceived as funny and at the same time offensive. However, the level of offense in DJ is lower than that registered in SI stimuli. Functional data showed that DJ activated the insula, the SMA, the precuneus, the ACC, the dorsal striatum (the caudate nucleus), and the thalamus. These activations suggest that in DJ a feeling of mirth (and/or a desire to laugh) derived from the joke (e.g., SMA and precuneus) and the perception of the jokes’ social inappropriateness (e.g., ACC and insula) coexist. Furthermore, DJ and SI share a common network related to mentalizing and to the processing of negative feelings, namely the medial prefrontal cortex, the putamen and the right thalamus.

Activation of the medial prefrontal cortex and extended amygdala by individual ratings of emotional arousal: a fMRI study

2003 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 211-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
K.Luan Phan ◽  
Stephan F Taylor ◽  
Robert C Welsh ◽  
Laura R Decker ◽  
Douglas C Noll ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Emotional Arousal ◽  
Extended Amygdala ◽  
Fmri Study

Pain-related autonomic response is modulated by the medial prefrontal cortex: An ECG–fMRI study in men

2015 ◽  
Vol 349 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 202-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabor Perlaki ◽  
Gergely Orsi ◽  
Attila Schwarcz ◽  
Peter Bodi ◽  
Eniko Plozer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Autonomic Response ◽  
Fmri Study

scholarly journals Basolateral amygdala input to the medial prefrontal cortex controls obsessive-compulsive disorder-like checking behavior

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (9) ◽  
pp. 3799-3804 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tingting Sun ◽  
Zihua Song ◽  
Yanghua Tian ◽  
Wenbo Tian ◽  
Chunyan Zhu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Basolateral Amygdala ◽  
Obsessive Compulsive ◽  
Neuronal Tracing ◽  
Compulsive Disorder ◽  
Glutamatergic Neurons ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Checking Behavior

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) affects ∼1 to 3% of the world’s population. However, the neural mechanisms underlying the excessive checking symptoms in OCD are not fully understood. Using viral neuronal tracing in mice, we found that glutamatergic neurons from the basolateral amygdala (BLAGlu) project onto both medial prefrontal cortex glutamate (mPFCGlu) and GABA (mPFCGABA) neurons that locally innervate mPFCGlu neurons. Next, we developed an OCD checking mouse model with quinpirole-induced repetitive checking behaviors. This model demonstrated decreased glutamatergic mPFC microcircuit activity regulated by enhanced BLAGlu inputs. Optical or chemogenetic manipulations of this maladaptive circuitry restored the behavioral response. These findings were verified in a mouse functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, in which the BLA–mPFC functional connectivity was increased in OCD mice. Together, these findings define a unique BLAGlu→mPFCGABA→Glu circuit that controls the checking symptoms of OCD.

scholarly journals History of Suicide Attempt Is Associated with Reduced Medial Prefrontal Cortex Activity during Emotional Decision-Making among Men with Schizophrenia: An Exploratory fMRI Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stéphane Potvin ◽  
Andràs Tikàsz ◽  
Stéphane Richard-Devantoy ◽  
Ovidiu Lungu ◽  
Alexandre Dumais
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Suicide Attempt ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Suicidal Attempt ◽  
Risky Decision ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
History Of ◽  
Brain Reward ◽  
Suicidal Ideas

Despite the high prevalence of suicidal ideas/attempts in schizophrenia, only a handful of neuroimaging studies have examined the neurobiological differences associated with suicide risk in this population. The main objective of the current exploratory study is to examine the neurofunctional correlates associated with a history of suicide attempt in schizophrenia, using a risky decision-making task, in order to show alterations in brain reward regions in this population. Thirty-two male outpatients with schizophrenia were recruited: 13 patients with (SCZ + S) and 19 without a history of suicidal attempt (SCZ − S). Twenty-one healthy men with no history of mental disorders or suicidal attempt/idea were also recruited. Participants were scanned using fMRI while performing the Balloon Analogue Risk Task. A rapid event-related fMRI paradigm was used, separating decision and outcome events, and the explosion probabilities were included as parametric modulators. The most important finding of this study is that SCZ + S patients had reduced activations of the medial prefrontal cortex during the success outcome event (with parametric modulation), relative to both SCZ − S patients and controls, as illustrated by a spatial conjunction analysis. These exploratory results suggest that a history of suicidal attempt in schizophrenia is associated with blunted brain reward activity during emotional decision-making.

scholarly journals Daily and Intermittent Smoking Decrease Gray Matter Volume and Concentrations of Glutamate, Creatine, Myo-Inositol and N-acetylaspartate in the Prefrontal Cortex

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Faulkner ◽  
Susanna Lucini Paioni ◽  
Petya Kozhuharova ◽  
Natasza Orlov ◽  
David J. Lythgoe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Gray Matter ◽  
Smoking Status ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Gray Matter Volume ◽  
Structural Mri ◽  
Resonance Spectroscopy ◽  
Matter Volume ◽  
The Right

AbstractCigarette smoking is still the largest contributor to disease and death worldwide. Successful cessation is hindered by decreases in prefrontal glutamate concentrations and gray matter volume due to daily smoking. Because non-daily, intermittent smoking also contributes greatly to disease and death, understanding whether infrequent tobacco use is associated with reductions in prefrontal glutamate concentrations and gray matter volume may aid public health. Eighty-five young participants (41 non-smokers, 24 intermittent smokers, 20 daily smokers, mean age ~23 years old), underwent 1H-magnetic resonance spectroscopy of the medial prefrontal cortex, as well as structural MRI to determine whole-brain gray matter volume. Compared to non-smokers, both daily and intermittent smokers exhibited lower concentrations of glutamate, creatine, N-acetylaspartate and myo-inositol in the medial prefrontal cortex, and lower gray matter volume in the right inferior frontal gyrus; these measures of prefrontal metabolites and structure did not differ between daily and intermittent smokers. Finally, medial prefrontal metabolite concentrations and right inferior frontal gray matter volume were positively correlated, but these relationships were not influenced by smoking status. This study provides the first evidence that both daily and intermittent smoking are associated with low concentrations of glutamate, creatine, N-acetylaspartate and myo-inositol, and low gray matter volume in the prefrontal cortex. Future tobacco cessation efforts should not ignore potential deleterious effects of intermittent smoking by considering only daily smokers. Finally, because low glutamate concentrations hinder cessation, treatments that can normalize tonic levels of prefrontal glutamate, such as N-acetylcysteine, may help intermittent and daily smokers to quit.

scholarly journals Irregular sleep habits, regional grey matter volumes, and psychological functioning in adolescents

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. e0243720
Author(s):  
Winok Lapidaire ◽  
Anna S. Urrila ◽  
Eric Artiges ◽  
Ruben Miranda ◽  
Hélène Vulser ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Psychological Functioning ◽  
Grey Matter ◽  
Protective Factor ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
Sleep Habits ◽  
Internal Factors ◽  
Externalising Symptoms ◽  
The Right

Changing sleep rhythms in adolescents often lead to sleep deficits and a delay in sleep timing between weekdays and weekends. The adolescent brain, and in particular the rapidly developing structures involved in emotional control, are vulnerable to external and internal factors. In our previous study in adolescents at age 14, we observed a strong relationship between weekend sleep schedules and regional medial prefrontal cortex grey matter volumes. Here, we aimed to assess whether this relationship remained in this group of adolescents of the general population at the age of 16 (n = 101; mean age 16.8 years; 55% girls). We further examined grey matter volumes in the hippocampi and the amygdalae, calculated with voxel-based morphometry. In addition, we investigated the relationships between sleep habits, assessed with self-reports, and regional grey matter volumes, and psychological functioning, assessed with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and tests on working memory and impulsivity. Later weekend wake-up times were associated with smaller grey matter volumes in the medial prefrontal cortex and the amygdalae, and greater weekend delays in wake-up time were associated with smaller grey matter volumes in the right hippocampus and amygdala. The medial prefrontal cortex region mediated the correlation between weekend wake up time and externalising symptoms. Paying attention to regular sleep habits during adolescence could act as a protective factor against the emergence of psychopathology via enabling favourable brain development.

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