TY - JOUR
T1 - Risky decision-making in older adults without cognitive deficits
T2 - An fMRI study of VMPFC using the Iowa Gambling Task
AU - Rogalsky, Corianne
AU - Vidal, Christine
AU - Li, Xiangrui
AU - Damasio, Hanna
N1 - Funding Information:
Correspondence should be addressed to: Corianne Rogalsky, Dana and David Dornsife Cognitive Neuroscience Imaging Center, University of Southern California, 3520A McClintock Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA. E-mail: rogalsky@college.usc.edu We would like to thank Malaak Moussa (subject recruitment and data collection), Prof. Jonas Kaplan (data analysis), Prof. Mara Mather (comments), and Prof. Antoine Bechara (support and comments) for their help in the performance of the study and for their helpful comments. This research was supported by the National Institute on Aging, grant 5-P50-AG00512-24.
PY - 2012/3
Y1 - 2012/3
N2 - Some older adults without neurological disease exhibit impaired decision-making in risky, nontransparent situations, like the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). The prefrontal cortices are particularly vulnerable to age-related decline, and numerous studies implicate the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) in successful IGT performance. However, the relationship between IGT performance and VMPFC function in older adults has not yet been tested by fMRI. In the present study, older adults with seemingly no cognitive impairments performed the IGT and a non-gambling control task during fMRI. Group analyses indicate that in these older adults, regardless of IGT performance level, a right VMPFC subregion is activated during the IGT, while successful IGT performance is correlated with left VMPFC activation, suggesting that bilateral VMPFC during risky, nontransparent situations may contribute to successful decision-making in older adults. Individual subject analyses reveal substantial variation regarding the extent and location of VMPFC activation during the IGT, a finding not captured in the group analysis: There is no correlation between IGT performance and extent of activation in the right VMPFC, although there is such a correlation between left VMPFC activation and IGT performance.
AB - Some older adults without neurological disease exhibit impaired decision-making in risky, nontransparent situations, like the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). The prefrontal cortices are particularly vulnerable to age-related decline, and numerous studies implicate the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) in successful IGT performance. However, the relationship between IGT performance and VMPFC function in older adults has not yet been tested by fMRI. In the present study, older adults with seemingly no cognitive impairments performed the IGT and a non-gambling control task during fMRI. Group analyses indicate that in these older adults, regardless of IGT performance level, a right VMPFC subregion is activated during the IGT, while successful IGT performance is correlated with left VMPFC activation, suggesting that bilateral VMPFC during risky, nontransparent situations may contribute to successful decision-making in older adults. Individual subject analyses reveal substantial variation regarding the extent and location of VMPFC activation during the IGT, a finding not captured in the group analysis: There is no correlation between IGT performance and extent of activation in the right VMPFC, although there is such a correlation between left VMPFC activation and IGT performance.
KW - Aging
KW - Decision-making
KW - Ventromedial prefrontal cortex
KW - fMRI
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U2 - 10.1080/17470919.2011.588340
DO - 10.1080/17470919.2011.588340
M3 - Article
C2 - 21864197
AN - SCOPUS:84858791430
SN - 1747-0919
VL - 7
SP - 178
EP - 190
JO - Social Neuroscience
JF - Social Neuroscience
IS - 2
ER -