Unconscious Processing in Decision-making

The fast growth of so-called Decision Neuroscience has clearly shown the implications of methods and results from behavioral economics as a potential bridge for translational research in neuro-psychiatric settings. The combination of behavioral and neural metrics allows to describe decision-making across multiple levels of explanation ranging from biological dispositions to contextual influences. To date, however, the translational implications of Decision Neuroscience are constrained by a relatively limited knowledge of the potential modulators of decision-making, which seem to include perceptual, cognitive and motor variables. In this regard, there is largely sparse evidence concerning the modulation of choices by highly different factors such as a) perceptual features of the stimuli (e.g., spatial distance between visually-presented potential gains and losses); b) type of processing required to participants (e.g., select vs. reject an option); c) type of motor response required to communicate the decision (e.g., press vs. release a button); d) subliminal vs. supraliminal perception of the stimuli. Moreover, there is evidence of ageing effects on decision-making, particularly when choice-related evaluations involve a trade-off between reward and risk. On this ground, this single center non-interventional behavioral study aims to investigate whether, and how, distinct well-established metrics of decision-making are influenced by the aforementioned factors. To this purpose, 200 healthy individuals will be recruited and assigned to different behavioral studies aimed to assess the effect of the aforementioned manipulations on well-established gambling tasks resulting in individual metrics of loss aversion (the tendency to prefer avoiding losses to acquiring equivalent gains), risk aversion (the preference for certain outcomes over probabilistic ones), and delay discounting (the decline in the present value of a reward with delay to its receipt). The results of this study are expected to provide a baseline reference for assessing alterations of decision-making performance in pathological conditions.

Inclusion criteria

• Healthy participants, as determined by screening assessments and principal investigator judgment
• The participant must be able to comply with study requirements as judged by the principal investigator

Exclusion criteria

• Any history of alcohol and/or drug abuse, addiction or suspicion of regular consumption of drugs of abuse
• Use of any psychoactive medication, or medications known to have effect on central nervous system