Selective activation of the nucleus accumbens during risk-taking decision making
Abstract
This study implemented a risk-taking task during fMRI to probe the brain circuitry involved in risk-taking decision-making in 12 healthy control subjects. Partially supporting the initial hypotheses, deliberation prior to selection of safe relative to risky responses generated greater activation in the inferior frontal cortex, superior temporal gyrus, and middle temporal gyrus; and deliberation prior to selection of risky relative to safe responses generated greater activation in medial frontal cortex, occipital cortex, nucleus accumbens and caudate. Additionally, accumbens activation correlated positively with the harm avoidance subscale of the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) 125. These findings may provide target neural systems to study in subjects who exhibit problematic risk-taking behaviors and may partially explain why certain risky behaviors occur.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
A number of studies have shown increases in activity in the nucleus accumbens immediately prior to making risky choices on monetary-risk paradigms.
“A number of studies have shown increases in activity in the nucleus accumbens immediately prior to making risky choices on monetary-risk paradigms (Kuhnen & Knutson 2005; Matthews et al. 2004; Montague & Berns 2002)”
From <i>The Adolescent Brain</i> (2008) · cites this paper as Matthews et al. 2004
Risk taking is associated with an increase in accumbens activity that is exaggerated in adolescents, relative to both children and adults.
“In contrast, risk taking is associated with an increase in accumbens activity (Kuhnen & Knutson 2005; Matthews et al. 2004; Montague & Berns 2002) that is exaggerated in adolescents, relative to both children and adults (Ernst et al. 2005; Galvan et al. 2006).”
From <i>The Adolescent Brain</i> (2008) · cites this paper as Matthews et al. 2004
Cites
The Framing of Decisions and the Psychology of Choice
Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1981) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.7455683 · Cited by 17,604 · see citing works
Forman, S. D., Cohen, J. D., Fitzgerald, M., Eddy, W. F., Mintun, M. A., & Noll, D. C. (1995) · Magnetic Resonance in Medicine · doi:10.1002/mrm.1910330508 · Cited by 3,202 · see citing works
Dorsal anterior cingulate cortex: A role in reward-based decision making
Bush, G., Vogt, B. A., Holmes, J., Dale, A. M., Greve, D., Jenike, M. A., & Rosen, B. R. (2002) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.012470999 · Cited by 1,096 · see citing works
Koob, G. F., Sanna, P. P., & Bloom, F. E. (1998) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/s0896-6273(00)80557-7 · Cited by 1,026 · see citing works
Activity in human ventral striatum locked to errors of reward prediction
Pagnoni, G., Zink, C. F., Montague, P. R., & Berns, G. S. (2002) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nn802 · Cited by 451 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
A social neuroscience perspective on adolescent risk-taking
Steinberg, L. (2008) · Developmental Review · doi:10.1016/j.dr.2007.08.002 · Cited by 3,644 · see citing works
Casey, B. J., Jones, R. M., & Hare, T. A. (2008) · Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1196/annals.1440.010 · Cited by 3,345 · see citing works
Casey, B. J., Getz, S., & Galvan, A. (2008) · Developmental Review · doi:10.1016/j.dr.2007.08.003 · Cited by 1,810 · see citing works
Peers increase adolescent risk taking by enhancing activity in the brain’s reward circuitry
Chein, J., Albert, D., O’Brien, L., Uckert, K., & Steinberg, L. (2011) · Developmental Science · doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2010.01035.x · Cited by 1,180 · see citing works
Functional magnetic resonance imaging of reward prediction
Knutson, B., & Cooper, J. C. (2005) · Current Opinion in Neurology · doi:10.1097/01.wco.0000173463.24758.f6 · Cited by 736 · see citing works
Braking and accelerating of the adolescent brain
Casey, B. J., Jones, R. M., & Somerville, L. H. (2011) · Journal of Research on Adolescence · doi:10.1111/j.1532-7795.2010.00712.x · Cited by 621 · see citing works
Risk-taking and the adolescent brain: Who is at risk?
Galvan, A., Hare, T., Voss, H., Glover, G., & Casey, B. J. (2007) · Developmental Science · doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2006.00579.x · Cited by 568 · see citing works
Age differences in affective decision making as indexed by performance on the Iowa gambling task
Cauffman, E., Shulman, E. P., Steinberg, L., Claus, E., Banich, M. T., Graham, S., & Woolard, J. (2010) · Developmental Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0016128 · Cited by 488 · see citing works
Mohr, P. N. C., Biele, G., & Heekeren, H. R. (2010) · The Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.0003-10.2010 · Cited by 411 · see citing works
Neural prediction errors reveal a risk-sensitive reinforcement-learning process in the human brain
Niv, Y., Edlund, J. A., Dayan, P., & O'Doherty, J. P. (2012) · The Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.5498-10.2012 · Cited by 356 · see citing works
Brenhouse, H. C., Sonntag, K. C., & Andersen, S. L. (2008) · The Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.5064-07.2008 · Cited by 287 · see citing works
Mapping mental function to brain structure: how can cognitive neuroimaging succeed?
Poldrack, R. A. (2010) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/1745691610388777 · Cited by 238 · see citing works
Risky Decisions and Their Consequences: Neural Processing by Boys with Antisocial Substance Disorder
Crowley, T. J., Dalwani, M. S., Mikulich-Gilbertson, S. K., Du, Y. P., Lejuez, C. W., Raymond, K. M., & Banich, M. T. (2010) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0012835 · Cited by 142 · see citing works
The Influence of Emotion Regulation on Decision-making under Risk
Martin, L. N., & Delgado, M. R. (2011) · Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1162/jocn.2011.21618 · Cited by 105 · see citing works
Gilman, J. M., Ramchandani, V. A., Crouss, T., & Hommer, D. W. (2012) · Neuropsychopharmacology · doi:10.1038/npp.2011.206 · Cited by 97 · see citing works
Adolescent mice, unlike adults, consume more alcohol in the presence of peers than alone
Logue, S., Chein, J., Gould, T., Holliday, E., & Steinberg, L. (2014) · Developmental Science · doi:10.1111/desc.12101 · Cited by 88 · see citing works
A neuropsychological approach to understanding risk-taking for potential gains and losses
Levin, I. P., Xue, G., Weller, J. A., Reimann, M., Lauriola, M., & Bechara, A. (2012) · Frontiers in Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnins.2012.00015 · Cited by 73 · see citing works
Brenhouse, H., Lukkes, J., & Andersen, S. (2013) · Brain Sciences · doi:10.3390/brainsci3010143 · Cited by 68 · see citing works
Salter, E. K. (2017) · Hastings Center Report · doi:10.1002/hast.666 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
- Authors
- Matthews, S. C., Simmons, A. N., Lane, S. D., & Paulus, M. P.
- Affiliations
- University of California San Diego (US)
- Venue
- NeuroReport
- Published
- 2004-09
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 13
- Pages
- 2123-2127
- ISSN
- 0959-4965 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2131771506
- Cited by
- 157
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 9
- FWCI
- 2.52
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Neuroreport (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- University of California, San Diego
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (R21 DA 13186, R01DA016663, R01DA15392, R21DA013186, R01DA015392)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Keywords
- nucleus accumbens, risk-taking, decision-making, deliberation, harm avoidance, temperament, caudate nucleus, inferior frontal cortex, medial frontal cortex, neural circuits
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Decision Making, Female, Humans, Functional Laterality, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Nucleus Accumbens, Oxygen, Personality Inventory, Reaction Time, Risk-Taking
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
