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Research links financial risk to brain structure
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IN the future, your eligibility for a specific investment portfolio might be decided by a brain scan test.
A study published recently in the journal “Neuron” suggests a person’s ability to tolerate economic risk is potentially correlated with connections between two areas of the brain.
Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have found that structural and functional connections between the amygdala and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) are associated with individual differences in the degree to which a person accepts risk versus return. Previously, those connections were implicated in the development of affective disorders like depression and anxiety.
Researchers asked 108 healthy young adults questions involving their comfort with financial choices in over 120 scenarios.
“We assessed how willing individuals were of accepting the risk of getting nothing for the chance of getting a higher amount of money,” said the paper’s author Joseph W. Kable, an associate professor of psychology.
Using MRI and diffusion tensor imaging, the researchers measured the structural and functional connections between the amygdala and mPFC system, and they also measured the size of the amygdala, including volume of gray matter and white matter.
It showed individuals with higher tolerance for risk possessed a larger amygdala (more gray matter) and more functional connections between the amygdala and mPFC, and fewer structural connections or pathways.
Researchers plan working with financial planning organizations to see how these findings can be used as a marker for risk tolerance for larger economic decisions.
“The idea of using these brain markers may help determine a better, more rounded sense of your tolerance for risk,” said Kable.
(Xinhua)
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