NeuronArticleSeparateNeuralMechanismsUnderlieChoicesandStrategicPreferencesinRiskyDecisionMakingVinodVenkatraman,1,2JohnW.Payne,2,3JamesR.Bettman,2,3MaryFrancesLuce,2,3andScottA.Huettel1,2,*1BrainImagingandAnalysisCenter,DukeUniversityMedicalCenter,Box3918,Durham,NC27710,USA2CenterforNeuroeconomicStudies,DukeUniversity,Box90999,Durham,NC27710,USA3FuquaSchoolofBusiness,DukeUniversity,1TowerviewDrive,Durham,NC27708,USA*Correspondence:scott.huettel@duke.eduDOI10.1016/j.neuron.2009.04.007SUMMARYandparietalcontrolregionssupportexecutivecontrolprocessesassociatedwithriskydecisions,aswellastheevaluationofriskAdaptivedecisionmakinginreal-worldcontextsoftenandjudgmentsaboutprobabilityandvalue(Barracloughetal.,reliesonstrategicsimplificationsofdecisionprob-2004;Huetteletal.,2005;Paulusetal.,2001;Sanfeyetal.,lems.Yet,theneuralmechanismsthatshapethese2003).Theseandotherstudieshaveledtoachoice-centricstrategiesandtheirimplementationremainlargelyneuralconceptionofdecisionmaking:tradeoffsbetweendeci-unknown.Usinganeconomicdecision-makingtask,sionvariables,suchaswhethersomeoneseekstominimizewedissociatebrainregionsthatpredictspecificpotentiallossesormaximizepotentialgains,reflectsimilartrade-offsbetweentheactivationofbrainregions(KuhnenandKnut-choicesfromthosepredictinganindividual’spreferredson,2005;Loewensteinetal.,2008;Sanfeyetal.,2003).Accord-strategy.Choicesthatmaximizedgainsorminimizedingly,individualdifferencesindecisionmakinghavebeenlosseswerepredictedbyfunctionalmagneticreso-characterizedneurometricallybyestimatingparametersassoci-nanceimagingactivationinventromedialprefrontalatedwithasinglemodelofriskychoiceandidentifyingregionscortexoranteriorinsula,respectively.However,thatcorrelatewithindividualdifferencesinthoseparameterschoicesthatfollowedasimplifyingstrategy(i.e.,(DeMartinoetal.,2006;Huetteletal.,2006;Tometal.,2007).attendingtooverallprobabilityofwinning)wereasso-Yet,followingapurelycompensatoryapproachtodecisionciatedwithactivationinpari