Jan B Engelmann
University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam School of Economics, Faculty Member
- I am currently Professor of Neuroeconomics at the University of Amsterdam. My research focuses on the neurobiology of... moreI am currently Professor of Neuroeconomics at the University of Amsterdam. My research focuses on the neurobiology of social and economic decision-making, and how emotions influence decisions. I studied Experimental Psychology at the University of St. Andrews (2000-2002) and then did my PhD at Brown University (2002-2008) at the Laboratory for Cognition and Emotion, where I investigated the influence of motivation on cognition. My postdocs in NeuroEconomics were at the Computation and Cognitive Neuroscience Lab at Emory University, the Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research at the University of Zurich and the Experimental Psychopathology and Affective Neuroscience Lab at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior.edit
Gambling disorder (GD) is a behavioural addiction characterized by impairments in decision-making, favouring risk- and reward-prone choices. One explanatory factor for this behaviour is a deviation in attentional processes, as increasing... more
Gambling disorder (GD) is a behavioural addiction characterized by impairments in decision-making, favouring risk- and reward-prone choices. One explanatory factor for this behaviour is a deviation in attentional processes, as increasing evidence indicates that GD patients show an attentional bias toward gambling stimuli. However, previous attentional studies have not directly investigated attention during risky decision-making. 25 patients with GD and 27 healthy matched controls (HC) completed a mixed gambles task combined with eye-tracking to investigate attentional biases for potential gains versus losses during decision-making under risk. Results indicate that compared to HC, GD patients gambled more and were less loss averse. GD patients did not show a direct attentional bias towards gains (or relative to losses). Using a recent (neuro)economics model that considers average attention and trial-wise deviations in average attention, we conducted fine-grained exploratory analyses ...
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To survive in our complex environment, we have to adapt to changing contexts. Prior research that investigated how contextual changes are processed in the human brain has demonstrated important modulatory influences on multiple cognitive... more
To survive in our complex environment, we have to adapt to changing contexts. Prior research that investigated how contextual changes are processed in the human brain has demonstrated important modulatory influences on multiple cognitive processes underlying decision-making, including perceptual judgments, working memory, as well as cognitive and attentional control. However, in everyday life, the importance of context is even more obvious during economic and social interactions, which often have implicit rule sets that need to be recognized by a decision-maker. Here, we review recent evidence from an increasing number of studies in the fields of Neuroeconomics and Social Neuroscience that investigate the neurobiological basis of contextual effects on valuation and social choice. Contrary to the assumptions of rational choice theory, multiple contextual factors, such as the availability of alternative choice options, shifts in reference point, and social context, have been shown to modulate behavior, as well as signals in task-relevant neural networks. A consistent picture that emerges from neurobiological results is that valuation-related activity in striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex is highly context dependent during both social and nonsocial choice. Alternative approaches to model and explain choice behavior, such as comparison-based choice models, as well as implications for future research are discussed.
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While navigating a fundamentally uncertain world, humans and animals constantly produce subjective confidence judgments, thereby evaluating the probability of their decisions, actions or statements being correct. Confidence typically... more
While navigating a fundamentally uncertain world, humans and animals constantly produce subjective confidence judgments, thereby evaluating the probability of their decisions, actions or statements being correct. Confidence typically correlates with neural activity positively in a ventromedial-prefrontal (VMPFC) network and negatively in a dorsolateral and dorsomedial prefrontal network. Here, combining fMRI with a reinforcement-learning paradigm, we leverage the fact that humans are more confident in their choices when seeking gains than avoiding losses to reveal a functional dissociation: whereas the dorsal prefrontal network correlates negatively with a condition-specific confidence signal, the VMPFC network positively encodes task-wide confidence signal incorporating the valence-induced bias. Challenging dominant neuro-computational models, we found that decision-related VMPFC activity better correlates with confidence than with option-values inferred from reinforcement-learning...
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Niels J. Van Doesum , Ryan O. Murphy, Marcello Gallucci, Efrat Aharonov-Majar, Ursula Athenstaedt , Wing Tung Au, Liying Bai , Robert B€ ohm , Inna Bovina , Nancy R. Buchan , Xiao-Ping Chen, Kitty B. Dumont , Jan B. Engelmann , Kimmo... more
Niels J. Van Doesum , Ryan O. Murphy, Marcello Gallucci, Efrat Aharonov-Majar, Ursula Athenstaedt , Wing Tung Au, Liying Bai , Robert B€ ohm , Inna Bovina , Nancy R. Buchan , Xiao-Ping Chen, Kitty B. Dumont , Jan B. Engelmann , Kimmo Eriksson , Hyun Euh , Susann Fiedler , Justin Friesen , Simon G€ achter , Camilo Garcia, Roberto Gonz alez , Sylvie Graf , Katarzyna Growiec , Serge Guimond , Martina H reb ı ckov a , Elizabeth Immer-Bernold, Jeff Joireman, Gokhan Karagonlar , Kerry Kawakami , Toko Kiyonari , Yu Kou, Alexandros-Andreas Kyrtsis , Siugmin Lay , Geoffrey J. Leonardelli , Norman P. Li, Yang Li , Boris Maciejovsky , Zoi Manesi, Ali Mashuri , Aurelia Mok , Karin S. Moser , Ladislav Mot ak , Adrian Netedu , Michael J. Platow , Karolina Raczka-Winkler, Christopher P. Reinders Folmer , Cecilia Reyna , Angelo Romano , Shaul Shalvi , Cl audia Sim~ ao , Adam W. Stivers , Pontus Strimling, Yannis Tsirbas , Sonja Utz , Leander van der Meij , Sven Waldzus , Yiwen Wang, Bernd Weber , Ori Weisel , Tim Wildschut , Fabian Winter , Junhui Wu , Jose C. Yong , and Paul A. M. Van Lange
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This folder contains all codes and data necessary to reproduce the analyses and results reported in 'Contextual influence on confidence judgments in human reinforcement learning'.<br><br>Please note that the codes... more
This folder contains all codes and data necessary to reproduce the analyses and results reported in 'Contextual influence on confidence judgments in human reinforcement learning'.<br><br>Please note that the codes needs Matlab R2014b or a more resent version, with the Statistics and Machine Learning toolbox<br>
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In simple instrumental-learning tasks, humans learn to seek gains and to avoid losses equally well. Yet, two effects of valence are observed. First, decisions in loss-contexts are slower. Second, loss contexts decrease individuals’... more
In simple instrumental-learning tasks, humans learn to seek gains and to avoid losses equally well. Yet, two effects of valence are observed. First, decisions in loss-contexts are slower. Second, loss contexts decrease individuals’ confidence in their choices. Whether these two effects are two manifestations of a single mechanism or whether they can be partially dissociated is unknown. Across six experiments, we attempted to disrupt the valence-induced motor bias effects by manipulating the mapping between decisions and actions and imposing constraints on response times (RTs). Our goal was to assess the presence of the valence-induced confidence bias in the absence of the RT bias. We observed both motor and confidence biases despite our disruption attempts, establishing that the effects of valence on motor and metacognitive responses are very robust and replicable. Nonetheless, within- and between-individual inferences reveal that the confidence bias resists the disruption of the RT...
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Home; About; Submit; Advertise & PR. Register; Login. Science: Genetics: Applied Genetic Epidemiology; Behavioral and Psychiatric Genetics; Bioinformatics and Computational Biology; Epigenomics; Evolutionary and Genomic Microbiology; ...
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Pain feels different in different social contexts, yet the mechanisms behind social pain modulation remain poorly understood. To elucidate the impact of social context on pain processing, we investigated how group membership, one of the... more
Pain feels different in different social contexts, yet the mechanisms behind social pain modulation remain poorly understood. To elucidate the impact of social context on pain processing, we investigated how group membership, one of the most important social context factors, shapes pain relief behaviourally and neurally in humans undergoing functional neuroimaging. Participants repeatedly received pain relief from a member of their own group (ingroup treatment) or a member of a disliked outgroup (outgroup treatment). We observed a decrease in pain ratings and anterior insula (AI) pain responses after outgroup treatment, but not after ingroup treatment. Moreover, path analyses revealed that the outgroup treatment induced a stronger relief learning in the AI, which in turn altered pain processing, in particular if the participant entered the treatment with a negative impression toward the outgroup individual. The finding of enhanced analgesia after outgroup treatment is relevant for i...
Pain feels different in different social contexts, yet the mechanisms behind social pain modulation remain poorly understood. To elucidate the impact of social context on pain processing, we investigated how group membership, one of the... more
Pain feels different in different social contexts, yet the mechanisms behind social pain modulation remain poorly understood. To elucidate the impact of social context on pain processing, we investigated how group membership, one of the most important social context factors, shapes pain relief behaviourally and neurally in humans undergoing functional neuroimaging. Participants repeatedly received pain relief from a member of their own group (ingroup treatment) or a member of a disliked outgroup (outgroup treatment). We observed a decrease in pain ratings and anterior insula (AI) pain responses after outgroup treatment, but not after ingroup treatment. Moreover, path analyses revealed that the outgroup treatment induced a stronger relief learning in the AI, which in turn altered pain processing, in particular if the participant entered the treatment with a negative impression toward the outgroup individual. The finding of enhanced analgesia after outgroup treatment is relevant for intergroup clinical settings. More generally, we found that group membership affects pain responses through neural learning and we thus elucidate one possible mechanism through which social context impacts pain processing.
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Despite considerable interest in the neural basis of valuation, the question of how valuation affects cognitive processing has received relatively less attention. Here, we review evidence from recent behavioral and neuroimaging studies... more
Despite considerable interest in the neural basis of valuation, the question of how valuation affects cognitive processing has received relatively less attention. Here, we review evidence from recent behavioral and neuroimaging studies supporting the notion that motivation can enhance perceptual and executive control processes to achieve more efficient goal-directed behavior. Specifically, in the context of cognitive tasks offering monetary gains, improved behavioral performance has been repeatedly observed in conjunction with elevated neural activations in task-relevant perceptual, cognitive and reward-related regions. We address the neural basis of motivation-cognition interactions by suggesting various modes of communication between relevant neural networks: (1) global hub regions may integrate information from multiple inputs providing a communicative link between specialized networks; (2) point-to-point interactions allow for more specific cross-network communication; and (3) d...
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Humans are social animals, but not everyone will be mindful of others to the same extent. Individual differences have been found, but would social mindfulness also be shaped by one’s location in the world? Expecting cross-national... more
Humans are social animals, but not everyone will be mindful of others to the same extent. Individual differences have been found, but would social mindfulness also be shaped by one’s location in the world? Expecting cross-national differences to exist, we examined if and how social mindfulness differs across countries. At little to no material cost, social mindfulness typically entails small acts of attention or kindness. Even though fairly common, such low-cost cooperation has received little empirical attention. Measuring social mindfulness across 31 samples from industrialized countries and regions (n = 8,354), we found considerable variation. Among selected country-level variables, greater social mindfulness was most strongly associated with countries’ better general performance on environmental protection. Together, our findings contribute to the literature on prosociality by targeting the kind of everyday cooperation that is more focused on communicating benevolence than on pr...
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ABSTRACT Background and objectives: Although approaches combining behavioral genetics and neuroeconomics have advanced models of addiction, no study has synthesized these methods to elucidate mechanisms of competing risk-approachand... more
ABSTRACT Background and objectives: Although approaches combining behavioral genetics and neuroeconomics have advanced models of addiction, no study has synthesized these methods to elucidate mechanisms of competing risk-approachand risk-avoidance in social anxiety (SA). Grounded in dual-mode models of serotonergic systems and self-regulation, this study investigated associations between SA, serotonin transporter 5-HTT (LPR; rs25531) and receptor 5-HT1A genes, and risk-taking on behavioral and self-report measures. Design and methods: Young adults (N = 309) completed a neuroeconomic task measuring gambling attractiveness (δ), reward probability discrimination (γ), and risk attitudes (α). Risk genotypes included 5-HTT (LPR; rs25531) low-expression variants (SS/SLG/LGLG), and 5-HT1A (rs6295) GG. Results: Path analysis revealed that SA related to increased gambling attractiveness, but only for 5-HT1A risk groups. Although the 5-HTT (LPR; rs25531) risk genotypes and self-reported SA predicted lower social risk-taking, high-SA individuals who exhibited more accurate reward probability discrimination (γ) reported taking increased social risks. Conclusion: In line with dual-mode models, results suggest that SA predicts behavioral risk-approach at the basic decision-making level, along with self-reported social risk-avoidance, modulated by serotonergic genotypes. High-SA individuals with more accurate assessments of reward probabilities may engage in greater social risk-taking, perhaps reflecting an adaptive tendency to approach feared situations.
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In simple instrumental-learning tasks, humans learn to seek gains and to avoid losses equally well. Yet, two effects of valence are observed. First, decisions in loss-contexts are slower, which is consistent with the... more
In simple instrumental-learning tasks, humans learn to seek gains and to avoid losses equally well. Yet, two effects of valence are observed. First, decisions in loss-contexts are slower, which is consistent with the Pavlovian-instrumental transfer (PIT) hypothesis. Second, loss contexts decrease individuals’ confidence in their choices – a bias akin to a Pavlovian-to-metacognitive transfer (PMT). Whether these two effects are two manifestations of a single mechanism or whether they can be partially dissociated is unknown. Here, across six experiments, we attempted to disrupt the PIT effects by manipulating the mapping between decisions and actions and imposing constraints on response times (RTs). Our goal was to assess the presence of the metacognitive bias in the absence of the RT bias. Were observed both PIT and PMT despite our disruption attempts, establishing that the effects of valence on motor and metacognitive responses are very robust and replicable. Nonetheless, within- an...
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Aversive affect is likely a key source of irrational human decision-making, but still, little is known about the neural circuitry underlying emotion-cognition interactions during social behavior. We induced incidental aversive affect via... more
Aversive affect is likely a key source of irrational human decision-making, but still, little is known about the neural circuitry underlying emotion-cognition interactions during social behavior. We induced incidental aversive affect via prolonged periods of threat of shock, while 41 healthy participants made investment decisions concerning another person or a lottery. Negative affect reduced trust, suppressed trust-specific activity in the left temporoparietal junction (TPJ), and reduced functional connectivity between the TPJ and emotion-related regions such as the amygdala. The posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) seems to play a key role in mediating the impact of affect on behavior: Functional connectivity of this brain area with left TPJ was associated with trust in the absence of negative affect, but aversive affect disrupted this association between TPJ-pSTS connectivity and behavioral trust. Our findings may be useful for a better understanding of the neural circuitry ...
Research Interests: Psychology, Emotion, Neuroeconomics, Trust, Social Cognition, and 3 moreScience, Affect/Emotion, and Medicine
Background Commonly observed distortions in decision-making among patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) may emerge from impaired reward processing and cognitive biases toward negative events. There is substantial theoretical... more
Background Commonly observed distortions in decision-making among patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) may emerge from impaired reward processing and cognitive biases toward negative events. There is substantial theoretical support for the hypothesis that MDD patients overweight potential losses compared with gains, though the neurobiological underpinnings of this bias are uncertain. Methods Twenty-one unmedicated patients with MDD were compared with 25 healthy controls (HC) using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) together with an economic decision-making task over mixed lotteries involving probabilistic gains and losses. Region-of-interest analyses evaluated neural signatures of gain and loss coding within a core network of brain areas known to be involved in valuation (anterior insula, caudate nucleus, ventromedial prefrontal cortex). Results Usable fMRI data were available for 19 MDD and 23 HC subjects. Anterior insula signal showed negative coding of losses (...
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Deficits in empathy enhance conflicts and human suffering. Thus, it is crucial to understand how empathy can be learned and how learning experiences shape empathy-related processes in the human brain. As a model of empathy deficits, we... more
Deficits in empathy enhance conflicts and human suffering. Thus, it is crucial to understand how empathy can be learned and how learning experiences shape empathy-related processes in the human brain. As a model of empathy deficits, we used the well-established suppression of empathy-related brain responses for the suffering of out-groups and tested whether and how out-group empathy is boosted by a learning intervention. During this intervention, participants received costly help equally often from an out-group member (experimental group) or an in-group member (control group). We show that receiving help from an out-group member elicits a classical learning signal (prediction error) in the anterior insular cortex. This signal in turn predicts a subsequent increase of empathy for a different out-group member (generalization). The enhancement of empathy-related insula responses by the neural prediction error signal was mediated by an establishment of positive emotions toward the out-g...
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Incidental negative emotions unrelated to the current task, such as background anxiety, can strongly influence decisions. This is most evident in psychiatric disorders associated with generalized emotional disturbances. However, the... more
Incidental negative emotions unrelated to the current task, such as background anxiety, can strongly influence decisions. This is most evident in psychiatric disorders associated with generalized emotional disturbances. However, the neural mechanisms by which incidental emotions may affect choices remain poorly understood. Here we study the effects of incidental anxiety on human risky decision making, focusing on both behavioral preferences and their underlying neural processes. Although observable choices remained stable across affective contexts with high and low incidental anxiety, we found a clear change in neural valuation signals: during high incidental anxiety, activity in ventromedial prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum showed a marked reduction in (1) neural coding of the expected subjective value (ESV) of risky options, (2) prediction of observed choices, (3) functional coupling with other areas of the valuation system, and (4) baseline activity. At the same time, activ...
Research Interests: Neuroscience, Psychophysics, Emotion, Neuroeconomics, Anxiety Disorders, and 15 moreDecision Making, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Anxiety, Motivation, Brain Mapping, Brain, Humans, Male, Reaction Time, Regression Analysis, Oxygen, Analysis of Variance, ANXIETY, Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, and Medical and Health Sciences
Depression is a prevalent disorder that significantly affects the social functioning and interpersonal relationships of individuals. This highlights the need for investigation of the neural mechanisms underlying these social difficulties.... more
Depression is a prevalent disorder that significantly affects the social functioning and interpersonal relationships of individuals. This highlights the need for investigation of the neural mechanisms underlying these social difficulties. Investigation of social exchanges has traditionally been challenging as such interactions are difficult to quantify. Recently, however, neuroeconomic approaches that combine multiplayer behavioural economic paradigms and neuroimaging have provided a framework to operationalize and quantify the study of social interactions and the associated neural substrates. We investigated brain activation using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in unmedicated depressed participants (n = 25) and matched healthy controls (n = 25). During scanning, participants played a behavioural economic paradigm, the Ultimatum Game (UG). In this task, participants accept or reject monetary offers from other players. In comparison to controls, depressed participants r...
Research Interests: Psychology, Neuroeconomics, Experimental games, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Behavioral Economics, and 15 moreNucleus Accumbens, Psychological Medicine, Reward, Humans, Caudate Nucleus, Female, Male, Young Adult, ULTIMATUM GAME, Depressive Disorder, Interpersonal Relations, Anhedonia, Adult, Morals, and Neurosciences
To survive in our complex environment, we have to adapt to changing contexts. Prior research that investigated how contextual changes are processed in the human brain has demonstrated important modulatory influences on multiple cognitive... more
To survive in our complex environment, we have to adapt to changing contexts. Prior research that investigated how contextual changes are processed in the human brain has demonstrated important modulatory influences on multiple cognitive processes underlying decision-making, including perceptual judgments, working memory, as well as cognitive and attentional control. However, in everyday life, the importance of context is even more obvious during economic and social interactions, which often have implicit rule sets that need to be recognized by a decision-maker. Here, we review recent evidence from an increasing number of studies in the fields of Neuroeconomics and Social Neuroscience that investigate the neurobiological basis of contextual effects on valuation and social choice. Contrary to the assumptions of rational choice theory, multiple contextual factors, such as the availability of alternative choice options, shifts in reference point, and social context, have been shown to ...
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Countercyclical risk aversion can explain major puzzles such as the high volatility of asset prices. Evidence for its existence is, however, scarce because of the host of factors that simultaneously change during financial cycles. We... more
Countercyclical risk aversion can explain major puzzles such as the high volatility of asset prices. Evidence for its existence is, however, scarce because of the host of factors that simultaneously change during financial cycles. We circumvent these problems by priming financial professionals with either a boom or a bust scenario. Subjects primed with a financial bust were substantially more fearful and risk averse than those primed with a boom, suggesting that fear may play an important role in countercyclical risk aversion. The mechanism described here is relevant for theory and may explain self-reinforcing processes that amplify market dynamics. (JEL E32, E44, G01, G11, G12)
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We investigated behavioral and neurobiological mechanisms by which risk-averse advice, provided by an expert, affected risky decisions across three developmental groups (early adolescents (12-14), late (15-17) adolescents, adults (18+)).... more
We investigated behavioral and neurobiological mechanisms by which risk-averse advice, provided by an expert, affected risky decisions across three developmental groups (early adolescents (12-14), late (15-17) adolescents, adults (18+)). Using Cumulative Prospect Theory, we modeled choice behavior during a risky-choice task. Results indicate that advice had a significantly greater impact on risky choice in both adolescent groups compared to adults. Using fMRI, we investigated the neural correlates of this behavioral effect. Developmental effects on correlations between brain activity and valuation parameters were obtained in regions that can be classified into (1) cognitive control regions, such as dorsolateral and ventrolateral PFC, (2) social cognition regions, such as posterior TPJ and (3) reward-related regions, such as vmPFC and ventral striatum. Within these regions, differential effects of advice on neural correlates of valuation were observed across development. Specifically...
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In the current chapter, we review research investigating the influences of affective states on trust. To delineate the behavioral and neural effects of emotions on trust decisions we consider research from multiple fields, including... more
In the current chapter, we review research investigating the influences of affective states on trust. To delineate the behavioral and neural effects of emotions on trust decisions we consider research from multiple fields, including Behavioral Economics, Psychology and Neuroeconomics. We focus on behavioral and neural research that examined the impact of moods and emotions experienced at the moment of choice. In particular, we critically examine evidence concerning the role played by both positive and negative incidental and integral emotions in the decision to trust. Overall, a pattern emerges from previous findings that strongly suggests that both incidental and integral emotions can influence decisions to trust. Specifically, positive incidental emotions, such as happiness, can enhance trust while negative incidental emotions, such as anxiety, typically reduce trust. At the same time, evidence from neuroimaging studies suggests that this behavioral effect is paralleled by emotion...
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Economists have become increasingly interested in using attention to explain behavioral patterns both on the micro and macro level. This has resulted in several disparate theoretical approaches. Some, like rational inattention, assume a... more
Economists have become increasingly interested in using attention to explain behavioral patterns both on the micro and macro level. This has resulted in several disparate theoretical approaches. Some, like rational inattention, assume a “top-down” model of executive optimization. Others, like salience theory, assume a “bottom-up” influence where attention is driven by contextual factors. This distinction is fundamental for the economic implications of attention, but so far there is little understanding of their relative importance. We propose a multi-attribute random utility model that unifies prior theoretical approaches by distinguishing between the impact of top-down and bottom-up attention. We accomplish this by separating agent-specific and decision-specific variation in attention and verify our framework in an eye-tracking experiment on risky choice. We find that both top-down and bottom-up attention are connected to important choice variables: both are associated with the wei...
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Center for Research in Experimental Economics and Political Decision Making (CREED), University of Amsterdam, 1018 WB, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Amsterdam Brain and Cognition (ABC), University of Amsterdam, 1018 WB, Amsterdam, The... more
Center for Research in Experimental Economics and Political Decision Making (CREED), University of Amsterdam, 1018 WB, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Amsterdam Brain and Cognition (ABC), University of Amsterdam, 1018 WB, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Behavioral and Experimental Economics, The Tinbergen Institute, 1082 MS, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Institute for Transport Planning and Systems (IVT), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland; Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, 2333 AK, Leiden, The Netherlands; Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development, University of Zurich, 8050 Zurich, Switzerland; and Department of Economics, University of Zurich, 8006 Zurich, Switzerland
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There is accumulating evidence suggesting that emotions can have a strong impact on social decision-making. However, the neural mechanisms of emotional influences on choice are less well understood to date. Here, we integrate recent... more
There is accumulating evidence suggesting that emotions can have a strong impact on social decision-making. However, the neural mechanisms of emotional influences on choice are less well understood to date. Here, we integrate recent results from two independent, but related, research streams in Social Neuroeconomics and Social Neuroscience, which together identify the neural mechanisms involved in the influences of emotions on social choice. Specifically, research in Social Neuroeconomics has shown that social decisions, such as trust taking, involve commonly ignored emotional considerations in addition to economic considerations related to payouts. Cooperative social interactions are consistently associated with approach emotions and activation within core structures of the reward system, the ventromedial prefrontal Cortex (VMPFC) and the ventral Striatum (VS), reflective of a social reward bonus above and beyond financial gain. Uncooperative social interactions, on the other hand, are consistently associated with aversive emotions and activation within core structures of the avoidance system, the anterior insula and amygdala, reflective of an emotional penalty above and beyond financial loss. These results are paralleled by recent findings in Social Neuroscience that underline the role of emotions in social interactions. Positive social feedback is consistently associated with approach emotions and activation within core structures of the reward system, the VMPFC and the VS. On the other hand, negative social feedback is consistently associated with aversive emotions and activation within core structures of the avoidance system, the anterior insula and the amygdala. Jointly, results from Social Neuroeconomics and Social Neuroscience suggest that social decision-making partially relies on emotional brain systems that signal the magnitude of positive and negative anticipatory emotions about the pro- and anti-social intentions of interaction partners. Therefore, anticipatory emotions associated with social approval and rejection can have important, but often ignored, influences on social choices. These considerations call for the integration of emotions into theories of social decision-making.
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We present recent evidence supporting the idea that emotions promote specific behaviors in an organism and that incidental emotion or affective cues will bias choices towards actions consistent with those behavioral goals. We review... more
We present recent evidence supporting the idea that emotions promote specific behaviors in an organism and that incidental emotion or affective cues will bias choices towards actions consistent with those behavioral goals. We review several strands of research in psychology, economics, and neuroscience showing that different emotions and mood states have specific behavioral effects on both individual and interpersonal decision-making that relate more to action tendencies than positive or negative valence. While early theoretical accounts of the influences of emotions on choice posited bidirectional valence-dependent effects on decision-making (e.g., Forgas, 1995), such accounts have proven to be too simplistic in light of the more recent results. Instead, the evidence reviewed in this chapter indicates that emotions bias various aspects of decision-making by priming choice-relevant cognitive mechanisms in a motivationally specific manner (e.g., Davidson, 1998; Gray, 2004; Harlé & Sanfey, 2010; Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 1998). This notion is supported by recent neuroimaging results that demonstrate emotion-specific enhancement and suppression of brain activity within the valuation system.
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To survive in our complex environment, we have to adapt to changing contexts. Prior research that investigated how contextual changes are processed in the human brain has demonstrated important modulatory influences on multiple cognitive... more
To survive in our complex environment, we have to adapt to changing contexts. Prior research that investigated how contextual changes are processed in the human brain has demonstrated important modulatory influences on multiple cognitive processes underlying decision-making, including perceptual judgments, working memory, as well as cognitive and attentional control. However, in everyday life, the importance of context is even more obvious during economic and social interactions, which often have implicit rule sets that need to be recognized by a decision-maker. Here, we review recent evidence from an increasing number of studies in the fields of Neuroeconomics and Social Neuroscience that investigate the neurobiological basis of contextual effects on valuation and social choice. Contrary to the assumptions of rational choice theory, multiple contextual factors, such as the availability of alternative choice options, shifts in reference point, and social context, have been shown to modulate behavior, as well as signals in task-relevant neural networks. A consistent picture that emerges from neurobiological results is that valuation-related activity in striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex is highly context dependent during both social and nonsocial choice. Alternative approaches to model and explain choice behavior, such as comparison-based choice models, as well as implications for future research are discussed.Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Research Interests: Cognitive Science, Decision Making, Experimental games, Individuality, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, and 32 moreRisk, Risk Taking, Financial Decision Making, Adolescent, Individual Differences, Brain Mapping, Brain, Humans, Caudate Nucleus, Risk Aversion, Gambling, Female, Functional Imaging, Male, Regression Analysis, Risky Choice, Substantia nigra, Orbitofrontal cortex, Expected Utility, Risk Factor, Risk Attitude, Adult, Analysis of Variance, Risk Preference, Parahippocampal Gyrus, Individual Difference, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Neurosciences, Predictive value of tests, Choice Behavior, Anterior cingulate cortex, and Expected Value
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Background. Depression is a prevalent disorder that significantly affects the social functioning and interpersonal relationships of individuals. This highlights the need for investigation of the neural mechanisms underlying these social... more
Background. Depression is a prevalent disorder that significantly affects the social functioning and interpersonal relationships
of individuals. This highlights the need for investigation of the neural mechanisms underlying these social difficulties.
Investigation of social exchanges has traditionally been challenging as such interactions are difficult to quantify.
Recently, however, neuroeconomic approaches that combine multiplayer behavioural economic paradigms and neuroimaging
have provided a framework to operationalize and quantify the study of social interactions and the associated
neural substrates.
Method. We investigated brain activation using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in unmedicated depressed
participants (n = 25) and matched healthy controls (n = 25). During scanning, participants played a behavioural
economic paradigm, the Ultimatum Game (UG). In this task, participants accept or reject monetary offers from other
players.
Results. In comparison to controls, depressed participants reported decreased levels of happiness in response to ‘fair’
offers. With increasing fairness of offers, controls activated the nucleus accumbens and the dorsal caudate, regions
that have been reported to process social information and responses to rewards. By contrast, participants with depression
failed to activate these regions with increasing fairness, with the lack of nucleus accumbens activation correlating with
increased anhedonia symptoms. Depressed participants also showed a diminished response to increasing unfairness of
offers in the medial occipital lobe.
Conclusions. Our findings suggest that depressed individuals differ from healthy controls in the neural substrates
involved with processing social information. In depression, the nucleus accumbens and dorsal caudate may underlie abnormalities
in processing information linked to the fairness and rewarding aspects of other people’s decisions.
of individuals. This highlights the need for investigation of the neural mechanisms underlying these social difficulties.
Investigation of social exchanges has traditionally been challenging as such interactions are difficult to quantify.
Recently, however, neuroeconomic approaches that combine multiplayer behavioural economic paradigms and neuroimaging
have provided a framework to operationalize and quantify the study of social interactions and the associated
neural substrates.
Method. We investigated brain activation using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in unmedicated depressed
participants (n = 25) and matched healthy controls (n = 25). During scanning, participants played a behavioural
economic paradigm, the Ultimatum Game (UG). In this task, participants accept or reject monetary offers from other
players.
Results. In comparison to controls, depressed participants reported decreased levels of happiness in response to ‘fair’
offers. With increasing fairness of offers, controls activated the nucleus accumbens and the dorsal caudate, regions
that have been reported to process social information and responses to rewards. By contrast, participants with depression
failed to activate these regions with increasing fairness, with the lack of nucleus accumbens activation correlating with
increased anhedonia symptoms. Depressed participants also showed a diminished response to increasing unfairness of
offers in the medial occipital lobe.
Conclusions. Our findings suggest that depressed individuals differ from healthy controls in the neural substrates
involved with processing social information. In depression, the nucleus accumbens and dorsal caudate may underlie abnormalities
in processing information linked to the fairness and rewarding aspects of other people’s decisions.
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Countercyclical risk aversion can explain major puzzles such as the high volatility of asset prices. Evidence for its existence is, however, scarce because of the host of factors that simultaneously change during financial cycles. We... more
Countercyclical risk aversion can explain major puzzles such as the high volatility of asset prices. Evidence for its existence is, however, scarce because of the host of factors that simultaneously change during financial cycles. We circumvent these problems by priming financial professionals with either a boom or a bust scenario. Subjects primed with a financial bust were substantially more fearful and risk averse than those primed with a boom, suggesting that fear may play an important role in countercyclical risk aversion. The
mechanism described here is relevant for theory and may explain self-reinforcing processes that amplify market dynamics.
mechanism described here is relevant for theory and may explain self-reinforcing processes that amplify market dynamics.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Incidental negative emotions unrelated to the current task, such as background anxiety, can strongly influence decisions. This is most evident in psychiatric disorders associated with generalized emotional disturbances. However, the... more
Incidental negative emotions unrelated to the current task, such as background anxiety, can strongly influence decisions. This is most evident in psychiatric disorders associated with generalized emotional disturbances. However, the neural mechanisms by which incidental emotions may affect choices remain poorly understood. Here we study the effects of incidental anxiety on human risky decision making, focusing on both behavioral preferences and their underlying neural processes. Although observable choices remained stable across affective contexts with high and low incidental anxiety, we found a clear change in neural valuation signals: during high incidental anxiety, activity in ventromedial prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum showed a marked reduction in (1) neural coding of the expected subjective value (ESV) of risky options, (2) prediction of observed choices, (3) functional coupling with other areas of the valuation system, and (4) baseline activity. At the same time, activity in the anterior insula showed an increase in coding the negative ESV of risky lotteries, and this neural activity predicted whether the risky lotteries would be rejected. This pattern of results suggests that incidental anxiety can shift the focus of neural valuation from possible positive consequences to anticipated negative consequences of choice options. Moreover, our findings show that these changes in neural value coding can occur in the absence of changes in overt behavior. This suggest a possible pathway by which background anxiety may lead to the development of chronic reward desensitization and a maladaptive focus on negative cognitions, as prevalent in affective and anxiety disorders.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Psychology, Cognitive Science, Decision Making, Experimental games, Expert testimony, and 20 moreMagnetic Resonance Imaging, Risk Taking, Adolescent, Probability, Social Cognitive Affective Neuroscience, Brain Mapping, Brain, Humans, Child, Female, Male, Reaction Time, Young Adult, Attitude, Middle Aged, Oxygen, Adult, Analysis of Variance, Age Factors, and Neurosciences
Research Interests: Engineering, Physics, Chemistry, Economics, Decision Making, and 22 moreMagnetic Resonance Imaging, Biology, Risk, Risk Taking, Financial Decision Making, Adolescent, Medicine, Multidisciplinary, Investments, Problem Solving, Brain Mapping, Humans, Female, Male, Young Adult, PLoS one, Adult, Inferior frontal gyrus, Region of Interest, Choice Behavior, Anterior cingulate cortex, and Probability weighting function
Despite considerable interest in the neural basis of valuation, the question of how valuation affects cognitive processing has received relatively less attention. Here, we review evidence from recent behavioral and neuroimaging studies... more
Despite considerable interest in the neural basis of valuation, the question of how valuation affects cognitive processing has received relatively less attention. Here, we review evidence from recent behavioral and neuroimaging studies supporting the notion that motivation can enhance perceptual and executive control processes to achieve more efficient goal-directed behavior. Specifically, in the context of cognitive tasks offering monetary gains, improved behavioral performance has been repeatedly observed in conjunction with elevated neural activations in task-relevant perceptual, cognitive and reward-related regions. We address the neural basis of motivation-cognition interactions by suggesting various modes of communication between relevant neural networks: (1) global hub regions may integrate information from multiple inputs providing a communicative link between specialized networks; (2) point-to-point interactions allow for more specific cross-network communication; and (3) diffuse neuromodulatory systems can relay motivational signals to cortex and enhance signal processing. Together, these modes of communication allow information regarding motivational significance to reach relevant brain regions and shape behavior.
Research Interests:
We investigated how the brain integrates motivational and attentional signals by using a neuroimaging paradigm that provided separate estimates for transient cue- and target-related signals, in addition to sustained block-related... more
We investigated how the brain integrates motivational and attentional signals by using a neuroimaging paradigm that provided separate estimates for transient cue- and target-related signals, in addition to sustained block-related responses. Participants performed a Posner-type task in which an endogenous cue predicted target location on 70% of trials, while motivation was manipulated by varying magnitude and valence of a cash incentive linked to task performance. Our findings revealed increased detection performance (d′) as a function of incentive value. In parallel, brain signals revealed that increases in absolute incentive magnitude led to cue- and target-specific response modulations that were independent of sustained state effects across visual cortex, fronto-parietal regions, and subcortical regions. Interestingly, state-like effects of incentive were observed in several of these brain regions, too, suggesting that both transient and sustained fMRI signals may contribute to task performance. For both cue and block periods, the effects of administering incentives were correlated with individual trait measures of reward sensitivity. Taken together, our findings support the notion that motivation improves behavioral performance in a demanding attention task by enhancing evoked responses across a distributed set of anatomical sites, many of which have been previously implicated in attentional processing. However, the effect of motivation was not simply additive as the impact of absolute incentive was greater during invalid than valid trials in several brain regions, possibly because motivation had a larger effect on reorienting than orienting attentional mechanisms at these sites.