Reinforcement learning models of risky choice and the promotion of risk-taking by losses disguised as wins in rats.

ABSTRACT: Risky decisions are inherently characterized by the potential to receive gains or incur losses, and these outcomes have distinct effects on subsequent decision-making. One important factor is that individuals engage in loss-chasing, in which the reception of a loss is followed by relatively increased risk-taking. Unfortunately, the mechanisms of loss-chasing are poorly understood, despite the potential importance for understanding pathological choice behavior. The goal of the present experiment was to illuminate the mechanisms governing individual differences in loss-chasing and risky-choice behaviors. Rats chose between a low-uncertainty outcome that always delivered a variable amount of reward and a high-uncertainty outcome that probabilistically delivered reward. Loss-processing and los

SUBMITTER: Marshall AT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5682951 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature