Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Risk and risk prediction error signals in anterior insula

  • Review
  • Published:
Brain Structure and Function Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Most accounts of the function of anterior insula in the human brain refer to concepts that are difficult to formalize, such as feelings and awareness. The discovery of signals that reflect risk assessment and risk learning, however, opens the door to formal analysis. Hitherto, activations have been correlated with objective versions of risk and risk prediction error, but subjective versions (influenced by pessimism/optimism or risk aversion/tolerance) exist. Activation in closely related cortical structures has been found to be both objective (anterior cingulate cortex) and subjective (inferior frontal gyrus). For this quantitative analysis of uncertainty-induced neuronal activation to further understanding of insula’s role in feelings and awareness, however, formalization and documentation of the relation between uncertainty and feelings/awareness will be needed. One obvious starting point is the link with failure anxiety and error awareness.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bechara A, Damasio H, Tranel D, Damasio AR (1997) Deciding advantageously before knowing the advantageous strategy. Science 275:1293–1295

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Behrens TE, Woolrich MW, Walton ME, Rushworth MF (2007) Learning the value of information in an uncertain world. Nat Neurosci 10:1214–1221

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bekaert G, Harvey CR, Ng A (2005) Market integration and contagion. J Business 78:39–69

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berger JO (1985) Statistical decision theory and Bayesian analysis. Springer, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Berns GS, Capra M, Chappelow J, Moore S, Noussair C (2008) Nonlinear neurobiological probability weighting functions for aversive outcomes. NeuroImage 39:2047–2057

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bossaerts P, Preuschoff K (2009) Q-Learning the learning rate. In: Society for neuroeconomics annual meetings. Evanston

  • Brass M, Haggard P (2007) To do or not to do: the neural signature of self-control. J Neurosci 27:9141–9145

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bunzeck N, Dayan P, Dolan RJ, Duzel E (2010) A common mechanism for adaptive scaling of reward and novelty. Hum Brain Mapp. doi:10.1002/hbm.20939

  • Carlsson K, Andersson J, Petrovic P, Petersson KM, Hman A, Ingvar M (2006) Predictability modulates the affective and sensory-discriminative neural processing of pain. NeuroImage 32:1804–1814

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Christopoulos GI, Tobler PN, Bossaerts P, Dolan RJ, Schultz W (2009) Neural correlates of value, risk, and risk aversion contributing to decision making under risk. J Neurosci 29:12574–12583

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Craig AD (2002) How do you feel? Interoception: the sense of the physiological condition of the body. Nat Rev Neurosci 3:655–666

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Craig AD (2009) How do you feel—now? The anterior insula and human awareness. Nat Rev Neurosci 10:59–70

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • d’Acremont M, Gilli M, Bossaerts P (2009a) Predicting risk in a multiple stimulus-reward environment. In: Dreher JC, Tremblay L (eds) Handbook of reward and decision making. Academic Press, New York, pp 460–473

  • D’Acremont M, Lu Z-L, Li X, Van der Linden M, Bechara A (2009b) Neural correlates of risk prediction error during reinforcement learning in humans. NeuroImage 47:1929–1939

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Delgado MR, Frank RH, Phelps EA (2005) Perceptions of moral character modulate the neural systems of reward during the trust game. Nature Neurosci 8:1611

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ellsberg D (1961) Risk, ambiguity, and the savage axioms. Q J Econ 75:643–669

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fiorillo CD, Tobler PN, Schultz W (2003) Discrete coding of reward probability and uncertainty by dopamine neurons. Science 299:1898–1902

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hsu M, Bhatt M, Adolphs R, Tranel D, Camerer CF (2005) Neural systems responding to degrees of uncertainty in human decision making. Science 310:1680–1683

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hsu M, Krajbich I, Zhao C, Camerer CF (2009) Neural response to reward anticipation under risk is nonlinear in probabilities. J Neurosci 29:2231–2237

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Huettel S, Song A, McCarthy G (2005) Decisions under uncertainty: probabilistic context influences activation of prefrontal and parietal cortices. J Neurosci 25:3304–3311

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • King-Casas B, Sharp C, Lomax-Bream L, Lohrenz T, Fonagy P, Montague PR (2008) The rupture and repair of cooperation in borderline personality disorder. Science 321:806–810

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Koch C, Preuschoff K (2007) Betting the house on consciousness. Nat Neurosci 10:140–141

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Koenig S, Simmons RG (1994) Risk-sensitive planning with probabilistic decision graphs. In: Doyle J, Sandewall E, Torasso P (eds) “{KR} ‘94: principles of knowledge representation and reasoning. Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco, pp 363–373

    Google Scholar 

  • Kroll Y, Levy H, Markowitz HM (1984) Mean-variance versus direct utility maximization. J Finance 39:47–61

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuhnen CM, Knutson B (2005) The neural basis of financial risk taking. Neuron 47:763–770

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lo AW, Repin DV (2002) The psychophysiology of real-time financial risk processing. J Cogn Neurosci 14:323–339

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mihatsch O, Neuneier R (2002) Risk-sensitive reinforcement learning. Mach Learn 49:267–290

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nassar M, Wilson R, Heasly B, Gold J (2009) Updating beliefs in a changing world. In: Society for neuroscience annual meetings. Chicago

  • Nursimulu AD, Preuschoff K, Bossaerts P (2009) On the pertinence of risk learning for reward learning. In: Society for neuroeconomics annual meetings. Evanston, IL

  • Paulus MP, Rogalsky C, Simmons A, Feinstein JS, Stein MB (2003) Increased activation in the right insula during risk-taking decision making is related to harm avoidance and neuroticism. NeuroImage 19:1439–1448

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Persaud N, McLeod P, Cowey A (2007) Post-decision wagering objectively measures awareness. Nat Neurosci 10:257–261

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Platel H, Price C, Baron JC, Wise R, Lambert J et al (1997) The structural components of music perception. A functional anatomical study. Brain 120:229–243

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pratt JW (1964) Risk aversion in the small and in the large. Econometrica 32:122–136

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Preuschoff K, Bossaerts P (2007) Adding prediction risk to the theory of reward learning. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1104:135–146

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Preuschoff K, Bossaerts P, Quartz SR (2006) Neural differentiation of expected reward and risk in human subcortical structures. Neuron 51:381–390

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Preuschoff K, Quartz SR, Bossaerts P (2008) Human insula activation reflects risk prediction errors as well as risk. J Neurosci 28:2745–2752

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ramirez I, Sanchez MB, Fernandez MC, Lipp OV, Vila J (2005) Differentiation between protective reflexes: cardiac defense and startle. Psychophysiology 42:732–739

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rutishauser U, Mamelak AN, Schuman EM (2006) Single-trial learning of novel stimuli by individual neurons of the human hippocampus–amygdala complex. Neuron 49:805–813

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sanfey AG, Rilling JK, Aronson JA, Nystrom LE, Cohen JD (2003) The neural basis of economic decision-making in the ultimatum game. Science 300:1755–1758

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schervisch MJ (1997) Theory of statistics. Springer, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Seeley WW, Menon V, Schatzberg AF, Keller J, Glover GH et al (2007) Dissociable intrinsic connectivity networks for salience processing and executive control. J Neurosci 27:2349–2356

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Singer T, Lamm C (2009) The social neuroscience of empathy. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1156:81–96

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Singer T, Critchley HD, Preuschoff K (2009) A common role of insula in feelings, empathy and uncertainty. Trends Cogn Sci 13:334–340

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tobler PN, Fiorillo CD, Schultz W (2005) Adaptive coding of reward value by dopamine neurons. Science 307:1642–1645

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tom SM, Fox CR, Trepel C, Poldrack RA (2007) The neural basis of loss aversion in decision-making under risk. Science 315:515–518

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yu AJ, Dayan P (2003) Expected and unexpected uncertainty: ACh and NE in the neocortex. Adv Neural Inform Process Syst 15

Download references

Acknowledgments

Supported by Grants from the US National Science Foundation (SES-0527491) and the Swiss Finance Institute. The manuscript benefited from discussions with Kerstin Preuschoff and Tania Singer, and comments from two referees and the editor, although the usual disclaimer applies.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computational and Neural Systems, California Institute of Technology, M/C 228-77, Pasadena, CA, 91125, USA

    Peter Bossaerts

  2. Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Peter Bossaerts

Authors
  1. Peter Bossaerts
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Peter Bossaerts.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Bossaerts, P. Risk and risk prediction error signals in anterior insula. Brain Struct Funct 214, 645–653 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-010-0253-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-010-0253-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation