Neural basis of risky decision making

Research Project

Project/Area Number	15K16570
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Basic / Social brain science
Research Institution	Tohoku University
Principal Investigator	Hironori Ishii 東北大学, 生命科学研究科, 助教 (30636676)
Project Period (FY)	2015-04-01 – 2017-03-31
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2016)
Budget Amount *help	¥3,770,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥870,000) Fiscal Year 2016: ¥1,820,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥420,000) Fiscal Year 2015: ¥1,950,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥450,000)
Keywords	意思決定 / リスク / 島皮質 / 前頭眼窩野
Outline of Final Research Achievements	We never win races if we always avoid risks. However, excessive risk taking could also lead to ruin. How does the brain make decisions? To investigate the role of the anterior insular cortex and the orbitofrontal cortex in risky decision making, here we recorded the neural activities in these two regions of the rat during the performance of gambling task. We found that the activities at the timing of decision were quite different between when the rats won the gamble in the previous trial and when they lose. The result indicates a possibility that these two regions recall past experience for the current decision.