Emotions and Choice: Mechanisms of Behavior Change

描述（由申请人提供）：拟议研究的目标是了解和开发成功的行为改变方法，这种方法可以帮助对一系列健康问题的治疗依从性，以及对以不良选择为特征的疾病的特定治疗，如肥胖和成瘾。为了实现这一目标，我们将结合神经经济学和情感神经科学的技术和见解。具体而言，我们将使用行为经济学范式和模型来分离和量化影响决策的具体个人因素，包括未来奖励在价值上的折现率以及评估价值时对损失或风险的相对敏感性。我们将把这些特定的决策变量与可能有助于价值计算的情感的特定组成部分联系起来，例如对损失或获得的唤醒反应。然后，我们将以情感神经科学的最新进展为基础，研究改变情绪的手段——包括认知情绪调节技术和药理操作——来探索这些方法如何影响不同的决策变量。最后，我们将研究另一种已知的影响健康决策的常见情绪反应，即压力，如何改变特定的决策变量和用于改变情绪反应和选择行为的拟议技术的有效性。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of the proposed research is to understand and develop successful means of behavior change that could assist in treatment compliance broadly for a range of health problems, as well as specific treatments for disorders characterized by poor choices, such as obesity and addiction. To achieve this goal, we will combine techniques and insights from neuroeconomics and affective neuroscience. Specifically, we will use behavioral economic paradigms and models to isolate and quantify specific individual factors that influence decisions, including the rate at which future rewards are discounted in value and the relative sensitivity to loss or risk when assessing value. We will link these specific decision variables to specific components of emotion that may contribute to the value computation, such as the arousal response to a loss or gain. We will then build on recent advances in affective neuroscience examining means to change emotion -- including cognitive emotion regulation techniques and pharmacological manipulations - to explore how these impact the different decision variables. Finally, we will examine how another common emotional response known to impact health decisions, namely stress, alters both the specific decision variables and the effectiveness of the proposed techniques used to alter emotional responses and choice behavior. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: It is not uncommon for individuals to make decisions that can be detrimental to their health and well-being, such as in obesity and addiction. The proposed research will combine insights from the science of decision making and emotion to develop new means to encourage behavior change.