Human Brain Mapping
Human Brain Mapping
5 years ago

Deficits in voluntary pursuit and inhibition of risk taking in sensation seeking

Qi Li, Weizhi Nan, Xun Liu, Jin Liang, Guochun Yang, Moqian Tian, Ya Zheng
Sensation seeking has been associated with substance use and other risk-taking behaviors. The present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study investigated the neural correlates underlying risk taking in sensation seeking. Twenty-eight high sensation seekers (HSS; 14 female and 14 male young adults) and 28 low sensation seekers (LSS; 14 female and 14 male young adults) performed an interactive, sequential gambling task that allowed for voluntary pursuit or inhibition of risk taking. Behaviorally, HSS versus LSS exhibited a stronger tendency toward risk taking. Comparison of the groups revealed that when taking risks, HSS relative to LSS exhibited reduced fMRI responses in brain areas involved in risk processing, such as the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and the thalamus. Importantly, during the voluntary inhibition of risk taking, HSS relative to LSS showed greater fMRI responses in brain areas implicated in cognitive control (the bilateral anterior cingulate cortex) and negative emotion (the right anterior insula). These findings suggest that risk taking in sensation seeking may be driven by both a hypoactive neural system in the voluntary pursuit of risk taking and a hyperactive neural system in the voluntary inhibition of risk taking, thus providing implications for future prevention programs targeting sensation-seeking behaviors. Hum Brain Mapp, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Publisher URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/resolve/doi

DOI: 10.1002/hbm.23807

You might also like
Discover & Discuss Important Research

Keeping up-to-date with research can feel impossible, with papers being published faster than you'll ever be able to read them. That's where Researcher comes in: we're simplifying discovery and making important discussions happen. With over 19,000 sources, including peer-reviewed journals, preprints, blogs, universities, podcasts and Live events across 10 research areas, you'll never miss what's important to you. It's like social media, but better. Oh, and we should mention - it's free.

  • Download from Google Play
  • Download from App Store
  • Download from AppInChina

Researcher displays publicly available abstracts and doesn’t host any full article content. If the content is open access, we will direct clicks from the abstracts to the publisher website and display the PDF copy on our platform. Clicks to view the full text will be directed to the publisher website, where only users with subscriptions or access through their institution are able to view the full article.