The amygdala and decision-making

Abstract

Decision-making is a complex process that requires the orchestration of multiple neural systems. For example, decision-making is believed to involve areas of the brain involved in emotion (e.g., amygdala, ventromedial prefrontal cortex) and memory (e.g., hippocampus, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex). In this article, we will present findings related to the amygdala’s role in decision-making, and differentiate the contributions of the amygdala from those of other structurally and functionally connected neural regions. Decades of research have shown that the amygdala is involved in associating a stimulus with its emotional value. This tradition has been extended in newer work, which has shown that the amygdala is especially important for decision-making, by triggering autonomic responses to emotional stimuli, including monetary reward and punishment. Patients with amygdala damage lack these autonomic responses to reward and punishment, and consequently, cannot utilize “somatic marker” type cues to guide future decision-making. Studies using laboratory decision-making tests have found deficient decision-making in patients with bilateral amygdala damage, which resembles their real-world difficulties with decision-making. Additionally, we have found evidence for an interaction between sex and laterality of amygdala functioning, such that unilateral damage to the right amygdala results in greater deficits in decision-making and social behavior in men, while left amygdala damage seems to be more detrimental for women. We have posited that the amygdala is part of an “impulsive,” habit type system that triggers emotional responses to immediate outcomes.

The neural basis of one's own conscious and unconscious emotional states

“…Another recent review also concluded that, while the ability to implicitly learn associations between behaviors and valenced bodily reactions depends on the amygdala, the ability to automatically trigger these learned bodily reactions in later decision-making is dependent on VMPFC (Gupta et al, 2011). Thus, when deciding between multiple possible courses of action, the VMPFC appears necessary for generating the negative and positive bodily feeling states that bias our decisions based on past experience.…”

“…These loops would allow VMPFC to generate the valenced bodily feelings during deliberation (based on implicit statistical learning mechanisms) that guide decision-making, even in the absence of sufficient bodily feedback (Gupta et al, 2011). Figure 4A, the body perception hierarchy can also be considered an emotion perception hierarchy.…”

Further evidence of a dissociation between decision-making under ambiguity and decision-making under risk in obsessive–compulsive disorder

“…In some articles, obsessive-compulsive symptoms have even been proposed as a manifestation of an underlying decision-making deficit; seeking for an immediate relief of anxiety by compulsion (short-term reward) leads to functional impairment and compromises quality of life in the long term (negative long-term con-of dice task (GDT) (Brand et al, 2005a), respectively. The IGT requires the development of implicit preference for advantageous choice under ambiguous reinforcement contingencies (decision-making under ambiguity), which is mediated by emotional learning (Bechara et al, 2000a) and relevant structures, such as the orbitofrontal/ventromedial prefrontal cortex and amygdala (Bechara, 2004;Bechara et al, 1999Bechara et al, , 2000bGupta et al, 2011). In a previous study of individuals with ventromedial prefrontal lesions, poor IGT performance was also influenced by reversal learning (Fellows and Farah, 2005).…”

Comorbidity in ADHD: A Neuropsychological Perspective

“…Fronto-temporal mechanisms are responsible for optimum regulation of emotional-based behavior (Gupta, Koscik, Bechara & Tranel, 2011), adequate frontal regulation to emotional-based responses represent an important prerequisite for interpersonal and social interactions, allowing subjects to regulate verbal and behavioral interactions; these processes are fundamental for socially-adjusted behavioral and personality development during childhood (Damasio, 2005). Based on genetics studies low serotonin metabolism has been outlined as the key neurotransmitter system for behavioral-impulsivity and aggression in ADHD (Oades et al, 2008).…”