Dopamine D_1 Receptors and Nonlinear Probability Weighting in Risky Choice
Abstract
Misestimating risk could lead to disadvantaged choices such as initiation of drug use (or gambling) and transition to regular drug use (or gambling). Although the normative theory in decision-making under risks assumes that people typically take the probability-weighted expectation over possible utilities, experimental studies of choices among risks suggest that outcome probabilities are transformed nonlinearly into subjective decision weights by a nonlinear weighting function that overweights low probabilities and underweights high probabilities. Recent studies have revealed the neurocognitive mechanism of decision-making under risk. However, the role of modulatory neurotransmission in this process remains unclear. Using positron emission tomography, we directly investigated whether dopamine D_1 and D_2 receptors in the brain are associated with transformation of probabilities into decision weights in healthy volunteers. The binding of striatal D_1 receptors is negatively correlated with the degree of nonlinearity of weighting function. Individuals with lower striatal D_1 receptor density showed more pronounced overestimation of low probabilities and underestimation of high probabilities. This finding should contribute to a better understanding of the molecular mechanism of risky choice, and extreme or impaired decision-making observed in drug and gambling addiction.
Additional Information
© 2010 The Authors. For the first six months after publication SfN's license will be exclusive. Beginning six months after publication the Work will be made freely available to the public on SfN's website to copy, distribute, or display under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Received July 28, 2010; revised Sept. 12, 2010; accepted Oct. 8, 2010. This study was supported by a consignment expense for Molecular Imaging Program on "Research Base for PET Diagnosis" from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). We thank Katsuyuki Tanimoto and Takahiro Shiraishi for their assistance in performing the PET experiments at the National Institute of Radiological Sciences. We also thank Yoshiko Fukushima of the National Institute of Radiological Sciences for her help as clinical research coordinator.Attached Files
Published - Takahashi2010p12330J_Neurosci.pdf
Supplemental Material - 1.pdf
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Additional details
- PMCID
- PMC6634867
- Eprint ID
- 21701
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20110111-113830801
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT)
- Created
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2011-01-26Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-09Created from EPrint's last_modified field