Functional and Structural Signatures of the Anterior Insula are associated with Risk-taking Tendency of Analgesic Decision-making

Abstract

In a medical context, decision-making is associated with complicated assessment of gains, losses and uncertainty of outcomes. We here provide novel evidence about the brain mechanisms underlying decision-making of analgesic treatment. Thirty-six healthy participants were recruited and completed the Analgesic Decision-making Task (ADT), which quantified individual tendency of risk-taking (RPI), as the frequency of choosing a riskier option to relieve pain. All the participants received resting-state (rs) functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and structural MRI. On rs-functional connectome, degree centrality (DC) of the bilateral anterior insula (aINS) was positively correlated with the RPI. The functional connectivity between the aINS, the nucleus accumbens and multiple brain regions, predominantly the medial frontal cortex, was positively correlated with the RPI. On structural signatures, the RPI was positively correlated with grey matter volume at the right aINS, and such an association was mediated by DC of the left aINS. Regression analyses revealed that both DC of the left aINS and participants’ imagined pain relief, as the utility of pain reduction, could predict the individual RPI. The findings suggest that the functional and structural brain signature of the aINS is associated with the individual differences of risk-taking tendency in the context of analgesic decision-making.

Relationships between Personality Traits and Brain Gray Matter Are Different in Risky and Non-risky Drivers

“…On the other hand, the cognitive control system is involved in the selection of actions, conflict monitoring, impulse inhibition, and regulation of the influence of the reward system on the decision-making process [ 36 , 50 , 52 , 84 , 87 , 107 – 110 ]. Gray matter volume alterations in these areas have been described in executive functioning alterations [ 111 ] and manifestations of risk behavior in both self-reported and laboratory tasks [ 106 , 109 , 112 – 114 ].…”

Relating the visceral factor of pain to domain‐specific risk attitudes

“…Furthermore, Koppel et al (2017) found that acute pain induction increased risk‐taking when deciding between a safe and a risky option in a gain frame; however, no differences in risk‐taking were observable in a loss frame. Lin et al (2016) showed that imagined pain relief was correlated with risk preferences in an analgesic decision‐making task. In this sense, the utility of imagining a reduction in pain from level 9 to level 6 on an 11‐point scale was negatively associated with choosing a risky treatment option.…”