Exploring decision-making strategies in the Iowa gambling task and rat gambling task

Abstract

Decision-making requires that individuals perceive the probabilities and risks associated with different options. Experimental human and animal laboratory testing provide complimentary insights on the psychobiological underpinnings of decision-making. The Iowa gambling task (IGT) is a widely used instrument that assesses decision-making under uncertainty and risk. In the task participants are faced with a choice conflict between cards with varying monetary reinforcer/loss contingencies. The rat gambling task (rGT) is a pre-clinical version using palatable reinforcers as wins and timeouts mimicking losses. However, interspecies studies elaborating on human and rat behavior in these tasks are lacking. This study explores decision-making strategies among young adults (N = 270) performing a computerized version of the IGT, and adult outbred male Lister Hooded rats (N = 72) performing the rGT. Both group and individual data were explored by normative scoring approaches and subgroup formations based on individual choices were investigated. Overall results showed that most humans and rats learned to favor the advantageous choices, but to a widely different extent. Human performance was characterized by both exploration and learning as the task progressed, while rats showed relatively consistent pronounced preferences for the advantageous choices throughout the task. Nevertheless, humans and rats showed similar variability in individual choice preferences during end performance. Procedural differences impacting on the performance in both tasks and their potential to study different aspects of decision-making are discussed. This is a first attempt to increase the understanding of similarities and differences regarding decision-making processes in the IGT and rGT from an explorative perspective.

Direct and indirect striatal projecting neurons exert strategy-dependent effects on decision-making

“…Hence valuation, i.e. how mice assign a value to options, remains fundamentally subjective 57,58 . Computational models of decision-making constitute powerful tools designed to infer subjective valuation from the temporal series of choices.…”

Age, but not education, affects social decision-making in the ultimatum game paradigm

“…In DM situations that require judgment based on experience and accumulated knowledge, as is the case of SDM, older adults perform as efficiently as the younger ones. 34,35 On the contrary, when the decision situation requires skills that decrease with age (such as working memory), older adults tend to perform DM tasks less efficiently. 36 Studies on age-related differences conducted using SDM tasks have shown that older people tend to exhibit more prosocial behaviors than younger individuals, which is in agreement with the present study.…”

Decoupling Dopamine Synthesis from Impulsive Action, Risk-Related Decision-Making, and Propensity to Cocaine Intake: A Longitudinal [18F]-FDOPA PET Study in Roman High- and Low-Avoidance Rats

“…After completing the forced-choice training, rats performed the rGT task (i.e., with all the options presented simultaneously) during 25 sessions to establish a stable response at baseline. A choice score [(%P1+%P2)–(%P3+%P4)] was used as an index of RDM ( Zeeb and Winstanley, 2013 ; Fugariu et al, 2020 ; Hultman et al, 2022 ), with a lower choice score indicating less optimal decision-making. Impulsive action was defined as the percentage of premature responses performed during the ITI (i.e., number of premature responses/total number of trials initiated × 100; Ferland and Winstanley, 2017 ).…”