Multiple Sclerosis Decreases Explicit Counterfactual Processing and Risk Taking in Decision Making |
| |
Authors: | Samanta Simioni Myriam Schluep Nadège Bault Giorgio Coricelli Joerg Kleeberg Renaud A. Du Pasquier Markus Gschwind Patrik Vuilleumier Jean-Marie Annoni |
| |
Affiliation: | 1. Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.; 2. Institut des Sciences Cognitives, Centre de Neuroscience Cognitive, CNRS, Bron, France.; 3. Department of Neuroscience, University Medical Center (CMU), Geneva University, Geneva, Switzerland.; 4. Department of Medicine, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland.; Centre national de la recherche scientifique, France, |
| |
Abstract: | IntroductionDeficits in decision making (DM) are commonly associated with prefrontal cortical damage, but may occur with multiple sclerosis (MS). There are no data concerning the impact of MS on tasks evaluating DM under explicit risk, where different emotional and cognitive components can be distinguished.MethodsWe assessed 72 relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) patients with mild to moderate disease and 38 healthy controls in two DM tasks involving risk with explicit rules: (1) The Wheel of Fortune (WOF), which probes the anticipated affects of decisions outcomes on future choices; and (2) The Cambridge Gamble Task (CGT) which measures risk taking. Participants also underwent a neuropsychological and emotional assessment, and skin conductance responses (SCRs) were recorded.ResultsIn the WOF, RRMS patients showed deficits in integrating positive counterfactual information (p<0.005) and greater risk aversion (p<0.001). They reported less negative affect than controls (disappointment: p = 0.007; regret: p = 0.01), although their implicit emotional reactions as measured by post-choice SCRs did not differ. In the CGT, RRMS patients differed from controls in quality of DM (p = 0.01) and deliberation time (p = 0.0002), the latter difference being correlated with attention scores. Such changes did not result in overall decreases in performance (total gains).ConclusionsThe quality of DM under risk was modified by MS in both tasks. The reduction in the expression of disappointment coexisted with an increased risk aversion in the WOF and alexithymia features. These concomitant emotional alterations may have implications for better understanding the components of explicit DM and for the clinical support of MS patients. |
| |
Keywords: | |
|
|