Cognitive Bases of Risk-taking Over the Lifespan: Psychophysics & Brain Imaging

一生中冒险的认知基础：心理物理学

• 批准号: 8286221
• 负责人: PAUL W GLIMCHER
• 金额: $ 31.68万
• 依托单位: YALE UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-05-15 至 2015-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8286221
• 关键词: Accounting; Adolescent; Affect; Age; Aging; Area; Attitude; Behavior; Behavioral; Brain; Brain imaging; Cognitive; Data; Decision Making; Development; Economics; Elderly; Functional Imaging; Healthcare; Human; Imaging Techniques; Investments; Longevity; Neurobiology; Paint; Pattern; Portraits; Probability; Property; Psychophysics; Risk; Risk Behaviors; Risk-Taking; Shapes; Testing; Uncertainty; adolescent drug abuse; base; behavior change; drug of abuse; frontal lobe; interest; mortality; psychologic; public health relevance; relating to nervous system; willingness

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Our attitude towards risk shapes nearly every aspect of our behavior. It affects our willingness to take drugs of abuse, to make efficient financial investments, and to select amongst healthcare options. We know that these attitudes change over the lifespan and that these changes make us vulnerable in different ways as we age. Adolescents engage in risky behaviors that hugely increase their mortality rates. Elders typically show the opposite profile, avoiding risky behaviors to a fault. But what is it about our behavior that changes as we age? What specific behavioral propensities and neurobiological features of aging can account for the changing attitudes we take towards risks? In this application we propose to combine economic, psychological and neurobiological approaches to the study of risky behavior in an effort to paint a portrait of risk attitudes across the lifespan at the behavioral and neural levels. Behavioral economic analyses suggests that risk-taking behavior results from the three largely independent attitudes towards risks: (1) Technical risk-aversion, which reflects a trade- off between the probability of gains or losses and the magnitude of those gains and losses, (2) Ambiguity aversion, which reflects the subject's sensitivity to uncertainty, and (3) Loss aversion, which reflects a subject's differential sensitivity to losses and gains. We hypothesize that the reduction in risk-taking behavior across the lifespan that is widely observed is primarily due to an increase in ambiguity aversion, rather than to an increase in risk or loss attitudes. Further, we hypothesize that, if anything, humans should become less technically risk averse and loss averse as they age. At the neural level, we also know that there are clear structural patterns in brain development that may well underlie these behavioral changes observed across the lifespan. Of particular interest to our hypothesis is the observation that frontal regions mature late, actually thinning during development and actually continue to thin throughout the lifespan. Activational patterns fronto-cortical decision areas also change throughout the lifespan. These data suggest that both morphologic and functional properties of the frontal cortex may contribute to these changes in risk-related behavior over the lifespan, a hypothesis we propose to test with a mixture of behavioral and functional imaging techniques. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Our attitude towards risk shapes nearly every aspect of our behavior, including our willingness to take drugs of abuse, to make efficient financial investments, and to select amongst healthcare options. We know that these attitudes change over the lifespan and that these changes make us vulnerable in different ways as we age. We propose an analysis of the precise behavioral and neural basis of risk attitudes across the lifespan in an effort to better understand the neural basis of behaviors such as drug abuse, adolescent risk-taking, and healthcare decision-making.

描述(由申请者提供)：我们对风险的态度几乎塑造了我们行为的方方面面。它影响我们服用滥用药物的意愿，影响我们进行有效的金融投资，以及在医疗保健选择中进行选择。我们知道，随着寿命的推移，这些态度会发生变化，随着年龄的增长，这些变化会以不同的方式使我们变得脆弱。青少年从事的危险行为极大地增加了他们的死亡率。长辈通常表现出相反的特征，避免犯错误的危险行为。但是，随着年龄的增长，我们的行为会发生什么变化呢？衰老的特定行为倾向和神经生物学特征可以解释我们对风险态度的变化？在这一应用中，我们建议结合经济学、心理学和神经生物学的方法来研究危险行为，努力在行为和神经水平上描绘出生命周期中的风险态度。行为经济学分析表明，冒险行为产生于三种基本独立的风险态度：(1)技术性风险厌恶，它反映了收益或损失的概率与收益和损失的大小之间的权衡；(2)模糊厌恶，它反映了主体对不确定性的敏感性；(3)损失厌恶，它反映了主体对损失和收益的不同敏感性。我们假设，人们普遍观察到的一生中冒险行为的减少主要是由于模糊厌恶的增加，而不是风险或损失态度的增加。此外，我们假设，如果说有什么不同的话，那就是随着年龄的增长，人类在技术上应该变得不那么厌恶风险和厌恶损失。在神经层面，我们也知道在大脑发育中有明确的结构模式，这很可能是在整个生命周期中观察到的这些行为变化的基础。我们的假说特别感兴趣的是，观察到额叶区域成熟较晚，实际上在发育过程中变薄，并在整个生命周期中实际上继续变薄。额叶皮质决定区域的激活模式在整个生命周期中也会发生变化。这些数据表明，额叶皮质的形态和功能特性可能有助于这些风险相关行为在一生中的变化，我们建议用行为和功能成像技术的混合来检验这一假说。 与公共健康相关：我们对风险的态度几乎塑造了我们行为的方方面面，包括我们是否愿意服用滥用药物、进行有效的金融投资，以及在医疗保健选项中进行选择。我们知道，随着寿命的推移，这些态度会发生变化，随着年龄的增长，这些变化会以不同的方式使我们变得脆弱。为了更好地理解药物滥用、青少年冒险和医疗保健决策等行为的神经基础，我们建议对整个生命周期中风险态度的精确行为和神经基础进行分析。