Time Course of the Neural Activity Related to Behavioral Decision-Making as Revealed by Event-Related Potentials

Abstract

Objective: To study the time course of the electrocortical activity evoked by gains and losses in the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), the brain sources of this electrical activity, and its association with behavioral parameters of task performance in order to achieve a better knowledge of decision-making processes.Method: Event-related potentials (ERPs) were obtained from a 64-channel EEG in 25 participants when performing the IGT. Brain source localization analyses of the ERP components were also assessed.Results: ERP amplitudes were sensitive to gains and losses. An early fronto-central negativity was elicited when feedback was provided for both gains and losses, and correlated with the number of gains at FCz and with the number of both gains and losses at Cz. The P200 component had larger amplitudes to losses and correlated positively with the number of losses. Feedback related negativity (FRN) was higher at frontal, temporal and occipital electrodes in trials with monetary losses. In addition, trials with monetary losses elicited larger P300 magnitudes than trials with monetary gains at all electrode localizations.Conclusions: All ERP components (except P300) were related to participants’ performance in the IGT. Amplitudes of P200 and P300 were associated with the conscious recognition of the error during the decision-making. Performance data and source analysis underline the importance of the medial prefrontal cortex when processing feedback about monetary losses in the IGT.

Impact of online poker gambling on behavioural and neurophysiological responses to a virtual gambling task

“…In line with what has been observed with fMRI, 5 many ERP studies showed that hypersensitivity to a reward undermines a person's ability to develop an optimal strategy 15,19 . More precisely, in a previous study, we found that participants with a blunted P300 showed better performance in the IGT, 19 while another group showed a positive correlation among all ERPs in IGT performance, except for the P300 20 . In addition, the P300 is related to the ability to discriminate relevant stimuli 21 .…”

Direct feedback and social conformity promote behavioral change via mechanisms indexed by centroparietal positivity: Electrophysiological evidence from a role‐swapping ultimatum game

“…However, its specific association with rejected trials is somewhat surprising, given that positivity within this time range is thought to be associated with rewarding outcomes ("Reward positivity"; Donaldson et al, 2016;Heydari & Holroyd, 2016). This "reward positivity" interpretation is not universally supported, as some authors have identified similar P2 sensitivity with gains versus losses (San Martín et al, 2013) or increased P2 sensitivity with losses (Martinez-Selva et al, 2019;Schuermann et al, 2012), although these latter findings are exceptional cases.…”

High-Definition Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Improves Decision-Making Ability: A Study Based on EEG

“…However, the changed amplitude of P300 induced by tDCS could not explain the improved decision-making performance. One study suggested that early negative wave, P200, feedback-related negativity, P300 and late positive potential were all elicited during IGT [ 43 ]. In future, we can explore the other ERP components to better understand the electrophysiology mechanism of the modulation effect in this study.…”

“…Previous ERP studies viewed P300 as a typical indicator to reflect rewarding processing in decision-making under uncertainty [ 42 ]. In a gambling task, trials with monetary losses elicited larger P300 amplitude than trials with monetary gains [ 43 ]. Moreover, it was found that P300 amplitudes seem to increase depending on the result of feedback, with strongest changes elicited by the losses [ 44 ].…”