Emotions that are incidental, such as anxiety or depression, can significantly influence the decision-making process, potentially leading to detrimental outcomes. One possible explanation for this phenomenon focuses on how brain structures involved in both processing emotions and making choices play a pivotal role in shaping decisions.
Brain structures involved in decision-making
Specifically, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC), ventral striatum (VS), insula, and amygdala are all activated during emotional processing and decision-making. However, they diverge in their role in value coding, which involves determining the positivity or negativity of an outcome. The VMPFC and VS are typically engaged when a situation is perceived positively, while the insula becomes active when assigning negative subjective value.
This suggests that the intertwining of emotions and decision-making processes within similar neural pathways can alter how individuals interpret situations subjectively. Moreover, chronic emotional states like depression and anxiety may significantly alter these pathways, influencing decision-making persistently.
Anxiety influences the decision-making process
The study delves into how anticipatory anxiety, induced by the threat of unpredictable electrical shocks, changes how individuals make decisions in a gambling scenario, by examining their neural activity. The findings indicate a shift in valuation coding, with decreased positive valuation linked to activity in the VPMFC and VS, and increased negative valuation associated with activity in the insula. Essentially, participants experiencing apprehensive anxiety showed a higher expectation of negative outcomes compared to those in a neutral state.
However, despite this shift towards negativity, participants managed to make thoughtful decisions during the gambling game, suggesting that they might have employed compensatory strategies to mitigate the impact of anxiety on their decision-making process. These strategies could include increased concentration or more extensive calculations. This aligns with previous research indicating that individuals with anxiety exert more cognitive effort in decision-making tasks.
The authors underscored that although this shift in valuation did not overtly affect participants’ behavior in the short term, chronic exposure to such negative emotions could eventually lead to a deterioration in subjective perceptions and behavioral changes, akin to what is observed in psychiatric disorders.
Reference:
Engelmann JB, Meyer F, Fehr E, Ruff CC. Anticipatory anxiety disrupts neural valuation during risky choice. J Neurosci. 2015 Feb 18;35(7):3085-99. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2880-14.2015. PMID: 25698745; PMCID: PMC6605597.