Electrophysiological indexes of option characteristic processing. (27th May 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lin, Yongling; Duan, Lian; Xu, Pengfei; Li, Xinying; Gu, Ruolei; Luo, Yuejia
• Is Part Of: Psychophysiology. Volume 56:Number 10(2019)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2019-05-27
• Subjects: degree of uncertainty -- ERP -- N2 -- option assessment -- outcome magnitude -- P1 -- P3; Psychophysiology -- Periodicals; 612.8
• DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13403
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0048-5772

Abstract

Abstract: Decision making is vital to human behavior and can be divided into multiple stages including option assessment, behavioral output, and feedback evaluation. Studying how people evaluate option characteristics in the option assessment stage would provide important knowledge on human decision making. Using the event‐related potential (ERP) method, the present study investigated the neural mechanism of evaluating two types of option characteristics (i.e., reward magnitude and degree of uncertainty) in the temporal dimension. Thirty‐five volunteers participated in a monetary gambling task, where they either accepted or rejected gambles. The ERP results showed a double dissociation pattern, with the early P1 component being sensitive to magnitude but insensitive to degree of uncertainty, while both the N2 and P3 components showed the opposite pattern. The results suggest that these two fundamental option features are assessed rapidly and separately in the human brain. Specifically, small magnitude elicited a larger P1 than did large magnitude, indicating that the perceptual and attentional processing of options is modulated by magnitude. Both the N2 and P3 amplitudes evoked by the risky context were larger than those evoked by the ambiguous one, reflecting that more cognitive conflicts and resources are involved in the former condition. Furthermore, the P1, but not the N2 or P3, amplitude was sensitive to decisions, suggesting that early attentional processes may contribute to human decision making. These findings may provide insight into the temporal mechanisms of option characteristic processing. Abstract : Although option assessment has been the one of most intensively studied stages to date, it remains unknown whether different option characteristics are processed successively or simultaneously in our brain. To address this issue, the current study investigated the temporal mechanism of two key option characteristics (i.e., reward magnitude and degree of uncertainty). We found dissociated electrophysiological responses from the two option characteristics, suggesting that they are processed successively and separately in our brain. Additionally, early attention capture might play an important role in rational decision making. These results provide insight into the temporal mechanisms of option assessment.