Iowa Gambling Task

Impaired decision-making is a key-feature of many neuropsychiatric disorders. In the present study, we examined task performance in a healthy population consisting of those whose scores indicated high and low impulsivity on several behavioral decision-making tasks reflecting orbitofrontal functioning. The measures included tasks that assess decision-making with and without a learning component and choice flexibility. The results show that subjects

Recent theoretical accounts of addiction have acknowledged that addiction to substances and behaviors share inherent similarities (eg, insensitivity to future consequences and self-regulatory deficits). This recognition is corroborated by inquiries into the neurobiological correlates of addiction, which has indicated that different manifestations of addictive pathology share common neural mechanisms. This review of the literature will explore the feasibility of the somatic marker hypothesis as a unifying explanatory framework of the decision-making deficits that are believed to be involved in addiction development and maintenance. The somatic marker hypothesis provides a neuroanatomical and cognitive framework of decision making, which posits that decisional processes are biased toward long-term prospects by emotional marker signals engendered by a neuronal architecture comprising both cortical and subcortical circuits. Addicts display markedly impulsive and compulsive behavioral patterns that might be understood as manifestations of decision-making processes that fail to take into account the long-term consequences of actions. Evidence demonstrates that substance dependence, pathological gambling, and Internet addiction are characterized by structural and functional abnormalities in neural regions, as outlined by the somatic marker hypothesis. Furthermore, both substance dependents and behavioral addicts show similar impairments on a measure of decision making that is sensitive to somatic marker functioning. The decision-making deficits that characterize addiction might exist a priori to addiction development; however, they may be worsened by ingestion of substances with neurotoxic properties. It is concluded that the somatic marker model of addiction contributes a plausible account of the underlying neurobiology of decision-making deficits in addictive disorders that is supported by the current neuroimaging and behavioral evidence. Implications for future research are outlined.

The goal of this study was to investigate how parents' engagement of their child in everyday decision-making influenced their adolescent's development on two neuropsychological functions, namely, affective decision-making and working memory, and its effect on adolescent binge-drinking behavior.We conducted a longitudinal study of 192 Chinese adolescents. In 10(th) grade, the adolescents were tested for their affective decision-making ability using the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and working memory capacity using the Self-ordered Pointing Test (SOPT). Questionnaires were used to assess perceived parent-child engagement in decision-making, academic performance and drinking behavior. At one-year follow-up, the same neuropsychological tasks and questionnaires were repeated.Results indicate that working memory and academic performance were uninfluenced by parent-child engagement in decision-making. However, compared to adolescents whose parents made solitary decisions for them, ad...

Complex human cognition, such as decision-making under ambiguity, is reflected in dynamic spatio-temporal activity in the brain. Here, we combined event-related potentials with computational modelling of the time course of decision-making and outcome evaluation during the Iowa Gambling Task. Measures of choice probability generated using the Prospect Valence Learning Delta (PVL-Delta) model, in addition to objective trial outcomes (outcome magnitude and valence), were applied as regressors in a general linear model of the EEG signal. The resulting three-dimensional spatio-temporal characterization of task-related neural dynamics demonstrated that outcome valence, outcome magnitude, and PVL-Delta choice probability were expressed in distinctly separate event related potentials. Our findings showed that the P3 component was associated with an experience-based measure of outcome expectancy.