The effects of stress on neural processing of reward and risk

描述(由申请人提供)：压力是日常生活的一部分；在一项全国性的研究中，40%的受访者报告当天经历了压力。我们从许多研究中得知，压力会影响健康、记忆力和幸福感。但这会影响我们做决定的方式吗？如果是这样，其影响是什么--我们是变得更加厌恶风险，还是变得更加厌恶风险？我们是不是更多地受到潜在不利因素的影响，而不是比其他情况下更多地受到潜在好处的影响？做出决策涉及一套复杂但灵活的大脑机制，这些机制计算期权的潜在价值，并根据结果的不确定性程度调整该值。在这个提案中，我们考察了急性压力对决策基本要素的影响：预测和代表价值的神经信号，整合期权的正面和负面方面，以及基于期权的预测波动性和不确定性评估风险。我们检验了两个主要假设。首先，压力通过腹侧纹状体中的多巴胺能效应，使奖励刺激变得更加吸引人和突出。第二，压力通过脑岛影响风险处理，但其影响因性别和年龄不同而不同。我们的一些最重要的决定必须在有压力的情况下做出；因此，我们最重要的是理解压力如何改变我们评估决策选择的方式的基本机制。 与公共健康相关：重要的决定，如关于个人财务和医疗保健的决定，往往涉及巨大的压力，特别是在老年人中。这项提案中的研究将提供关于压力如何影响这些决定以及人们如何厌恶风险的重要信息。即使在最好的情况下，做出最佳决策也是具有挑战性的；这些发现应该为理解如何在压力下改进决策提供关键信息。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Stress is part of daily life; in a national study 40% of respondents reported experiencing stress that day. We know from many studies that stress can affect health, memory, and well-being. But does it affect how we make decisions? And if so, what are the implications-do we become more or less risk averse? Are we more influenced by the potential downsides and less by potential upsides to an option than we would be otherwise? Making decisions involves a complex yet flexible set of brain mechanisms that compute the potential value of options and adjust that value based on the level of uncertainty about the outcome. In this proposal, we examine the effects of acute stress on the basic elements of decision making: the neural signals that predict and represent value, integrate the positive and negative aspects of options, and assess risk based on predicted volatility and uncertainty of options. We test two main hypotheses. The first is that stress makes rewarding stimuli even more attractive and salient, via dopaminergic effects in the ventral striatum. The second is that stress affects risk processing via the insula, but that it has different effects depending on one's sex and age. Some of our most important decisions must be made under stressful circumstances; thus it is paramount that we understand the basic mechanisms of how stress changes the way we evaluate decision options. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Important decisions, such as those regarding personal finances and health care, often involve substantial stress, especially among older adults. The studies in this proposal will provide important information about how stress affects those decisions and how risk averse people are. Making optimal decisions is challenging even under the best of circumstances; these findings should provide critical information for understanding how to improve decision making under stress.