Decision Making The Significance of Cognition, Emotion, and Impulsivity University of Copenhagen Department of Psychology By: Linn Øfsti Supervisor: Anders Gade 189.282 key strokes = 78, 8 pages 1 Abstract .............................................................................................................................................. 5 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 6 2. General framework for decision making .................................................................................... 7 3. Theoretical overview ...................................................................................................................... 8 3. 1 Expected Utility theory ............................................................................................................ 8 3. 2 Prospect theory ..................................................................................................................... 10 3. 2. 1 Criticism of prospect theory .......................................................................................... 12 3. 3 Theory of reasoned action .................................................................................................... 13 4. The role of information processing and cognition on decision making ....................................... 14 4. 1 Attention ............................................................................................................................... 15 4. 2 Learning and Memory ........................................................................................................... 16 4. 3 Biases influencing decision making ....................................................................................... 17 4. 3.1 Representativeness heuristic ......................................................................................... 17 4. 3.2 Availability heuristics ...................................................................................................... 18 4. 3.3 Heuristics as advantageous to decision making ............................................................. 19 5. Reasoning and intelligence ...................................................................................................... 20 5. 1 Reasoning and decision making ............................................................................................ 20 5. 2 Intelligence and decision making .......................................................................................... 21 6. The effect of emotions in decision making .............................................................................. 22 6. 1 Effect of emotion on information processing ....................................................................... 23 6. 2 Current emotions and decision making ................................................................................ 24 6. 3 Anticipated emotions ............................................................................................................ 25 6. 3.1 Biases of anticipated emotions ...................................................................................... 27 6. 4 Regret and decision making .................................................................................................. 28 6. 5 Emotion and risk-taking behaviors ........................................................................................ 29 7. Decision making- influenced by both emotion and cognition ................................................. 31 8. The neuroanatomical basis for decision making ...................................................................... 33 8. 1 The ventromedial prefrontal cortices. .................................................................................. 33 8. 2 The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex ........................................................................................ 36 8. 3 Anterior cingulate cortex....................................................................................................... 37 8. 4 Amygdala ............................................................................................................................... 38 8. 5 Nucleus Accumbens/ ventral Striatum .................................................................................. 39 9. The somatic marker hypothesis ............................................................................................... 40 9. 1 The somatic marker hypothesis ............................................................................................ 40 2 9. 2 Iowa Gambling Task .............................................................................................................. 42 9. 3 Empirical evidence for SMH .................................................................................................. 43 9. 4 Criticism of the IGT ................................................................................................................ 45 9. 5 Task design issues .................................................................................................................. 49 9. 6 Alternative explanations for impaired test performance on the IGT .................................... 50 10. Disadvantageous decision making ...................................................................................... 51 10. 1 Impulsivity and decision making ......................................................................................... 52 10. 1 .1 Neurobiology of impulsivity ........................................................................................ 52 10. 2 Decision making under emotional distress ......................................................................... 53 10. 2.3 Emotional distress and coping mechanisms ................................................................ 54 10. 4. Serotonin ............................................................................................................................ 55 10. 4.1 Regulation of serotonin in the brain ............................................................................ 55 10. 4.2 Serotonin and decision making .................................................................................... 56 10. 4.3. Genetic variations in the serotonergic system and decision making .......................... 57 10. 5. Dopamine ........................................................................................................................... 59 10. 5.1 Dopamine and decision making ................................................................................... 59 10. 6. Substance use disorder ...................................................................................................... 60 10. 6.1 Decision making deficits in substance use disorder groups ......................................... 61 10. 6.1.1 The neurotoxic perspective of drug abuse........................................................... 62 10. 6.1.2.The diathesis model of drug addiction ................................................................. 63 10. 6.2. Neurobiological basis for drug addiction .................................................................... 63 10. 7. Pathological Gambling ........................................................................................................ 65 10. 7.1 Decision making deficits in pathological gamblers ...................................................... 65 10. 7.2 The biopsychosocial model of gambling ...................................................................... 66 10. 7.3.The pathway model of gambling .................................................................................. 67 10. 7.4. Cognitive distortions in gamblers ................................................................................ 67 11. Empirical part ...................................................................................................................... 67 11.1 The effect of MDMA on decision making in healthy subjects .............................................. 68 11. 1.2 Theoretical overview .................................................................................................... 68 11. 1.3 Method ......................................................................................................................... 70 11. 1.3.1 Subjects ................................................................................................................ 70 11. 1.3.2. Procedure ............................................................................................................ 71 11.1.3. Results .......................................................................................................................... 72 11. 1.3.1. Selection of the risky cards in blocks of 20 trials ................................................ 72 11. 1.3.2. Selection of the risky cards in the last 60 trials ................................................... 73 3 11. 1.3.3. Total selection of the risky cards ......................................................................... 73 11. 1.4 Discussion ..................................................................................................................... 74 11. 2 The effect of SSRI on decision making in healthy first-degree relatives of persons with depression ...................................................................................................................................