| Summary: |
The relatively new field of neuroeconomics integrates knowledge from multiple disciplines, including economics, psychology, and neurosciences, with the explicit goal of providing better models for individual choice and decision-making [l]. This effort not only has the potential to provide a more comprehensive understanding of decision-making, but also to promote a better understanding of maladaptive decision-making patterns. The present project applies a multidisciplinary neuroeconomic approach to the study of uncertainty processing in decision-making. Humans face a daily variety of decision-making challenges in distinct aspects of life, including financial, social, health-related, and political. Most of these decisions are made under uncertainty, a concept employed to describe an imperfect knowledge about the expected outcomes for distinct choices [2, 3]. Although the conceptual distinction between uncertainty and risk was formulated in the early 1920s by Frank Knight [5], thedistinction is not always clearly stated in the neuroscientific study of decision-making [4], leading to an often-interchangeable misuse of the concepts of risk and uncertainty. Even though research in neuroscience has provided some evidence for the dissociation of the neuronal underpinnings of decision-making in situations of risk and uncertainty, the distinction between risk and uncertainty is often neglected, with most studies exclusively exploring the neuronal correlates for decisions under risk with the implicit assumption that these would lead to a general understanding of decision-making [13].
Additionally, the interchangeable use of reward variance, a concept that mainly resembles risk, as a proxy to both risk and uncertainty leads to suboptimal experimental designs where variations of uncertainty are coupled with variations in risk, making it impossible to dissociate the brain correlates of uncertainty and risk in decision-making [3]. ln arder to overcome the existing limitations  |
Summary
The relatively new field of neuroeconomics integrates knowledge from multiple disciplines, including economics, psychology, and neurosciences, with the explicit goal of providing better models for individual choice and decision-making [l]. This effort not only has the potential to provide a more comprehensive understanding of decision-making, but also to promote a better understanding of maladaptive decision-making patterns. The present project applies a multidisciplinary neuroeconomic approach to the study of uncertainty processing in decision-making. Humans face a daily variety of decision-making challenges in distinct aspects of life, including financial, social, health-related, and political. Most of these decisions are made under uncertainty, a concept employed to describe an imperfect knowledge about the expected outcomes for distinct choices [2, 3]. Although the conceptual distinction between uncertainty and risk was formulated in the early 1920s by Frank Knight [5], thedistinction is not always clearly stated in the neuroscientific study of decision-making [4], leading to an often-interchangeable misuse of the concepts of risk and uncertainty. Even though research in neuroscience has provided some evidence for the dissociation of the neuronal underpinnings of decision-making in situations of risk and uncertainty, the distinction between risk and uncertainty is often neglected, with most studies exclusively exploring the neuronal correlates for decisions under risk with the implicit assumption that these would lead to a general understanding of decision-making [13].
Additionally, the interchangeable use of reward variance, a concept that mainly resembles risk, as a proxy to both risk and uncertainty leads to suboptimal experimental designs where variations of uncertainty are coupled with variations in risk, making it impossible to dissociate the brain correlates of uncertainty and risk in decision-making [3]. ln arder to overcome the existing limitations in the literature and shed light on the brain correlates of uncertainty processing while controlling for methodological confounds, we propose a research plan that aims to: (a) experimentally dissociate the brain imaging correlates of risk and uncertainty processing in decision-making, while controlling for expected value and utility; and to (b) provide a multilevel assessment of risk and uncertainty processing, complementing behavioural data with brain imaging data. The suggested experimental study explores the brain correlates of risk and uncertainty processing in decision making using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). A sample of 30 adult individuais recruited from the community will engage in the study (sample size based on a power analysis). Self-report measures of attitudes towards risk and uncertainty will be assessed using The Domain-specific Risk-attitude Scale [23] and the short form of the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale [24]. ln arder to assess how risk and uncertainty affect decision-making and its brain correlates, an experimental decision-making task is proposed, which allows the parametric manipulation of both risk and uncertainty independently from confounding variables such as expected value and utility (adapted from [8]). Blood Oxygen Levei Dependent (BOLD) responses, using a 3T Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanner, will be recorded during the task and for a short resting period. Data analysis will be focused on the brain regions that are distinctly activated by parametric variations of uncertainty and risk - while controlling for econometrically relevant variables, such as expected value and utility. The experimental design will allow to collect the necessary data for a comprehensive multi-level assessment of the behavioural and brain correlates of risk and uncertainty processing. Considering that most studies of decision-making in experimental settings exclusively target risk processing, often showing reduced predictive power for real-life scenarios (e.g., in financial investments or selection of an insurance plan), and given that most naturalistic decisions encompass uncertain outcomes where the probabilities of the different outcomes are often intangible [15], the present research proposal for the study of the brain mechanisms underlying both risk and uncertainty processing offers value for both basic neuroscience and its interface with real-world decision settings. |