STUDY EXAMINES WHERE WE MAKE BAD CHOICES

Drug users take many gambles in their lives, and a new study has provided a
hint about which areas of the brain figure into bad decisions.

Scientists from the National Institute on Drug Abuse have taken images to
see which parts of the brain are engaged when people predict the
consequences of their decisions. The researchers studied 11 people who were
taking a gambling test designed to gauge whether people make bad decisions.

The subjects were asked to choose cards from each of four decks, two "bad"
and two "good." Choosing certain cards from the bad decks resulted in large
rewards (in the form of poker chips), but other cards led to even larger
penalties, so it was not profitable in the long run. Choosing from the good
deck was more profitable in the long run because there were lots of cards
with small rewards and penalty cards were not severe.

People who tended to choose from the bad decks had less activity in the
brain region called the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. People with damage
in this area also do poorly on the gambling test.