Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-05T11:53:42.008Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Risk Patterns and Correlated Brain Activities. Multidimensional Statistical Analysis of fMRI Data in Economic Decision Making Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

Alena van Bömmel
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics
Song Song
Affiliation:
C.A.S.E. Center for Applied Statistics and Economics, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Piotr Majer*
Affiliation:
C.A.S.E. Center for Applied Statistics and Economics, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Peter N. C. Mohr
Affiliation:
Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin
Hauke R. Heekeren
Affiliation:
Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin
Wolfgang K. Härdle
Affiliation:
School of Business, Singapore Management University
*
Requests for reprints should be sent to Piotr Majer, C.A.S.E. Center for Applied Statistics and Economics, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

Decision making usually involves uncertainty and risk. Understanding which parts of the human brain are activated during decisions under risk and which neural processes underly (risky) investment decisions are important goals in neuroeconomics. Here, we analyze functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data on 17 subjects who were exposed to an investment decision task from Mohr, Biele, Krugel, Li, and Heekeren (in NeuroImage 49, 2556–2563, 2010b). We obtain a time series of three-dimensional images of the blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) fMRI signals. We apply a panel version of the dynamic semiparametric factor model (DSFM) presented in Park, Mammen, Wolfgang, and Borak (in Journal of the American Statistical Association 104(485), 284–298, 2009) and identify task-related activations in space and dynamics in time. With the panel DSFM (PDSFM) we can capture the dynamic behavior of the specific brain regions common for all subjects and represent the high-dimensional time-series data in easily interpretable low-dimensional dynamic factors without large loss of variability. Further, we classify the risk attitudes of all subjects based on the estimated low-dimensional time series. Our classification analysis successfully confirms the estimated risk attitudes derived directly from subjects’ decision behavior.

Type
Original Paper
Copyright
Copyright © 2013 The Psychometric Society

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Beckmann, C., Smith, S. (2005). Tensorial extensions of independent component analysis for multisubject FMRI analysis. NeuroImage, 25, 294311CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Behrmann, M., Geng, J., Shomstein, S. (2004). Parietal cortex and attention. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 14, 212217CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cortes, C., Vapnik, V. (2005). The nature of statistical learning theory’. Machine Learning, 20, 273297CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guo, W. (2002). Functional mixed effects models. Biometrics, 58, 121128CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heekeren, H., Marrett, S., Ungerleider, L. (2008). The neural systems that mediate human perceptual decision making. Nature Reviews. Neuroscience, 9, 467479CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kable, J., Glimcher, P. (2007). The neural correlates of subjective value during intertemporal choice. Nature Neuroscience, 10, 16251633CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mohr, P., Biele, G., Heekeren, H. (2010). Neural processing of risk. Journal of Neuroscience, 30(19), 66136619CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mohr, P., Nagel, I. (2010). Variability in brain activity as an individual difference measure in neuroscience?. Journal of Neuroscience, 30, 77557757CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mohr, P.N.C., Biele, G., Krugel, L.K., Li, S.-C., Heekeren, H.R. (2010). Neural foundations of risk-return trade-off in investment decisions. NeuroImage, 49, 25562563CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mumford, J.A., Poldrack, R.A. (2007). Modeling group fMRI data. Social, Cognitive, and Affective Neuroscience, 2, 251257CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Park, B.U., Mammen, E., Wolfgang, H., Borak, S. (2009). Time series modelling with semiparametric factor dynamics. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 104(485), 284298CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plassmann, H., O’Doherty, J., Rangel, A. (2007). Orbitofrontal cortex encodes willingness to pay in everyday economic transactions. Journal of Neuroscience, 37, 99849988CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rangel, A., Camerer, C., Montague, P. (2008). A framework for studying the neurobiology of value-based decision making. Nature Reviews. Neuroscience, 9, 545556CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Samanez-Larkin, G., Kuhnen, C., Yoo, D., Knutson, B. (2010). Variability in nucleus accumbens activity mediates age-related suboptimal financial risk taking. Journal of Neuroscience, 30, 14261434CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sarin, R., Weber, M. (1993). Risk-value models. European Journal of Operational Research, 70, 135149CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tobler, P., O’Doherty, J., Dolan, R., Schultz, W. (2007). Reward value coding distinct from risk attitude-related uncertainty coding in human reward systems. Journal of Neurophysiology, 97, 16211632CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wang, Y. (1998). Mixed effects smoothing spline analysis of variance. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series B, 60, 159174CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weber, E., Johnson, E. (2009). Mindful judgment and decision making. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 5385CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weber, E., Johnson, E. (2009). Neuroeconomics. Decision making and the brain, London: Elsevier 127144 Ch. Decisions under uncertainty: psychological, economic, and neuroeconomic explanations of risk preferenceGoogle Scholar
Weber, E.U., Milliman, R. (1997). Perceived risk attitudes: relating risk perception to risky choices. Management Science, 43(2), 122143CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weber, E.U., Siebenmorgen, N., Weber, M. (2005). Communicating asset risk: how name recognition and the format of historic volatility information affect risk perception and investment decisions. Risk Analysis, 25(3), 597609CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed