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Neurocognitive development of risk aversion from early childhood to adulthood.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Paulsen, DJ; Carter, RM; Platt, ML; Huettel, SA; Brannon, EM
Published in: Front Hum Neurosci
2011

Human adults tend to avoid risk. In behavioral economic studies, risk aversion is manifest as a preference for sure gains over uncertain gains. However, children tend to be less averse to risk than adults. Given that many of the brain regions supporting decision-making under risk do not reach maturity until late adolescence or beyond it is possible that mature risk-averse behavior may emerge from the development of decision-making circuitry. To explore this hypothesis, we tested 5- to 8-year-old children, 14- to 16-year-old adolescents, and young adults in a risky-decision task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data acquisition. To our knowledge, this is the youngest sample of children in an fMRI decision-making task. We found a number of decision-related brain regions to increase in activation with age during decision-making, including areas associated with contextual memory retrieval and the incorporation of prior outcomes into the current decision-making strategy, e.g., insula, hippocampus, and amygdala. Further, children who were more risk-averse showed increased activation during decision-making in ventromedial prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum. Our findings indicate that the emergence of adult levels of risk aversion co-occurs with the recruitment of regions supporting decision-making under risk, including the integration of prior outcomes into current decision-making behavior. This pattern of results suggests that individual differences in the development of risk aversion may reflect differences in the maturation of these neural processes.

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Published In

Front Hum Neurosci

DOI

EISSN

1662-5161

Publication Date

2011

Volume

5

Start / End Page

178

Location

Switzerland

Related Subject Headings

  • Experimental Psychology
  • 5204 Cognitive and computational psychology
  • 5202 Biological psychology
  • 3209 Neurosciences
  • 1702 Cognitive Sciences
  • 1701 Psychology
  • 1109 Neurosciences
 

Citation

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Paulsen, D. J., Carter, R. M., Platt, M. L., Huettel, S. A., & Brannon, E. M. (2011). Neurocognitive development of risk aversion from early childhood to adulthood. Front Hum Neurosci, 5, 178. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2011.00178
Paulsen, David J., R McKell Carter, Michael L. Platt, Scott A. Huettel, and Elizabeth M. Brannon. “Neurocognitive development of risk aversion from early childhood to adulthood.Front Hum Neurosci 5 (2011): 178. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2011.00178.
Paulsen DJ, Carter RM, Platt ML, Huettel SA, Brannon EM. Neurocognitive development of risk aversion from early childhood to adulthood. Front Hum Neurosci. 2011;5:178.
Paulsen, David J., et al. “Neurocognitive development of risk aversion from early childhood to adulthood.Front Hum Neurosci, vol. 5, 2011, p. 178. Pubmed, doi:10.3389/fnhum.2011.00178.
Paulsen DJ, Carter RM, Platt ML, Huettel SA, Brannon EM. Neurocognitive development of risk aversion from early childhood to adulthood. Front Hum Neurosci. 2011;5:178.

Published In

Front Hum Neurosci

DOI

EISSN

1662-5161

Publication Date

2011

Volume

5

Start / End Page

178

Location

Switzerland

Related Subject Headings

  • Experimental Psychology
  • 5204 Cognitive and computational psychology
  • 5202 Biological psychology
  • 3209 Neurosciences
  • 1702 Cognitive Sciences
  • 1701 Psychology
  • 1109 Neurosciences