Neurophysiological contributors to advantageous risk-taking: an experimental psychopharmacological investigation.

ABSTRACT: The ability to learn from experience is critical for determining when to take risks and when to play it safe. However, we know little about how within-person state changes, such as an individual's degree of neurophysiological arousal, may impact the ability to learn which risks are most likely to fail vs succeed. To test this, we used a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled design to pharmacologically manipulate neurophysiological arousal and assess its causal impact on risk-related learning and performance. Eighty-seven adults (45% female, Mage = 20.1 ± 1.46 years) took either propranolol (n = 42), a beta-adrenergic receptor blocker that attenuates sympathetic nervous system-related signaling, or a placebo (n = 45). Participants then completed the Balloon Emotional Learning Task, a

SUBMITTER: MacCormack JK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8421704 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature