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. 2018 Jul;147(7):1094-1109.
doi: 10.1037/xge0000434.

Brain activation covaries with reported criminal behaviors when making risky choices: A fuzzy-trace theory approach

Valerie F Reyna  1 , Rebecca K Helm  1 , Rebecca B Weldon  1 , Pooja D Shah  1 , Alexa G Turpin  1 , Shravya Govindgari  1
Affiliations

Brain activation covaries with reported criminal behaviors when making risky choices: A fuzzy-trace theory approach

Valerie F Reyna et al. J Exp Psychol Gen. 2018 Jul.

Abstract

Criminal behavior has been associated with abnormal neural activity when people experience risks and rewards or exercise inhibition. However, neural substrates of mental representations that underlie criminal and noncriminal risk-taking in adulthood have received scant attention. We take a new approach, applying fuzzy-trace theory, to examine neural substrates of risk preferences and criminality. We extend ideas about gist (simple meaning) and verbatim (precise risk-reward tradeoffs) representations used to explain adolescent risk-taking to uncover neural correlates of developmentally inappropriate adult risk-taking. We tested predictions using a risky-choice framing task completed in the MRI scanner, and examined neural covariation with self-reported criminal and noncriminal risk-taking. As predicted, risk-taking was correlated with a behavioral pattern of risk preferences called "reverse framing" (preferring sure losses over a risky option and a risky option over sure gains, the opposite of typical framing biases) that has been linked to risky behavior in adolescents and is rarely observed in nondisordered adults. Experimental manipulations confirmed processing interpretations of typical framing (gist-based) and reverse-framing (verbatim-based) risk preferences. In the brain, covariation with criminal and noncriminal risk-taking was observed predominantly when subjects made reverse-framing choices. Noncriminal risk-taking behavior was associated with emotional reactivity (amygdala) and reward motivation (striatal) areas, whereas criminal behavior was associated with greater activation in temporal and parietal cortices, their junction, and insula. When subjects made more developmentally typical framing choices, reflecting nonpreferred gist processing, activation in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex covaried with criminal risk-taking, which may reflect cognitive effort to process gist while inhibiting preferred verbatim processing. (PsycINFO Database Record

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Significant interaction between frame and truncation. Error bars represent +/− 1 Standard Error.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Covariation of cluster with peak in amygdala with noncriminal risky behavior in Verbatim + Mixed GainRisky > Verbatim + Mixed GainSure (activation at p<.001).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Covariation of parietal cluster with criminal risky behavior in Gist LossSure > Gist LossRisky (activation at p<.001).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Covariation of activation in the left and right dlPFC with criminal risky behavior in Verbatim LossRisky > Verbatim LossSure (activation at p<.001).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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