Risk‐taking in the human brain: An activation likelihood estimation meta‐analysis of the balloon analog risk task (BART)

Abstract

The Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART) is increasingly used to assess risk-taking behavior and brain function. However, the brain networks underlying risk-taking during the BART and its reliability remain controversial. Here, we combined the activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis with both task-based and task-free functional connectivity (FC) analysis to quantitatively synthesize brain networks involved in risktaking during the BART, and compared the differences between adults and adolescents studies. Based on 22 pooled publications, the ALE meta-analysis revealed multiple brain regions in the reward network, salience network, and executive control network underlying risk-taking during the BART. Compared with adult risk-taking, adolescent risk-taking showed greater activation in the insula, putamen, and prefrontal regions. The combination of meta-analytic connectivity modeling with task-free FC analysis further confirmed the involvement of the reward, salience, and cognitive control networks in the BART. These findings demonstrate the core brain networks for risk-taking during the BART and support the utility of the BART for future neuroimaging and developmental research.

Age differences in the neural basis of decision-making under uncertainty

“…The BART has a long tradition in behavioral and neuroimaging research aiming to elucidate (the neural basis of) individual differences in risk taking (Lejuez et al, 2002;Rao et al, 2008;Schonberg et al, 2012;Helfinstein et al, 2014;Tisdall et al, 2020). Age effects have also been studied with the BART, at the level of both behavior (Mata et al, 2011;Rolison et al, 2012;Mamerow et al, 2016) and the brain (Yu et al, 2016;Tannou et al, 2021;Wang et al, 2022). The standard implementation of the BART involves the virtual inflation of balloons via sequential administration of pumps (i.e., button presses), yet participants are not informed about explosion points or inflation capacity.…”

“…A standard contrast of neural activation differences in the BART is that of reward balloons versus control balloons (Schonberg et al, 2012;Rao et al, 2008;Yu et al, 2016;Tisdall et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2022). This contrast is thought to capture essential processes associated with decisions being made under uncertainty, in particular because only the balloon display phase is modeled, but not outcome or feedback phases.…”

“…For the current analysis, we contrasted average activation differences (relative to baseline) of reward balloons with the average activation differences associated with control balloon trials (accounting for head motion). This contrast has been shown to yield activation differences in subcortical brain circuitry associated with the processing of anticipated (uncertain) rewards and losses, as well as with cortical integration regions, among others (Schonberg et al, 2012;Wang et al, 2022). However, although standard, this contrast misses the rising tension associated with additional pumping, because it treats every balloon equally, regardless of where in the sequence of pumps this balloon occurred.…”

Age differences in the neural basis of decision-making under uncertainty

“…Age effects have also been studied with the BART, at the level of both behavior (Mamerow et al, 2016;Mata et al, 2011;Rolison et al, 2012) and the brain (Tannou et al, 2021;Wang et al, 2022;Yu et al, 2016). The standard implementation of the BART involves the virtual inflation of balloons via sequential administration of pumps (i.e., button presses), yet participants are not informed about explosion points or inflation capacity.…”

“…A standard contrast of neural activation differences in the BART is that of reward balloons versus control balloons (Rao et al, 2008;Schonberg et al, 2012;Tisdall et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2022;Yu et al, 2016). This contrast is thought to capture essential processes associated with decisions being made under uncertainty, in particular because only the balloon display phase is modeled, but not outcome or feedback phases.…”