Measuring Strategic Uncertainty and Risk in Coordination, Entry Games, and Lotteries with fMRI

Abstract

Neuroscientists and economists have recently begun to study jointly how strategic thinking regulates human individual and social behavior. The question we are addressing is whether the neural systems mediating decisions in individual and social context are distinct. More precisely, we are trying to identify whether risk and strategic uncertainty are mediated by different brain networks. Results: We found enhanced activity in bilateral anterior insula related to outcome uncertainty. Activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), superior temporal sulcus, and temporo-parietal junction, and posterior cingulated cortex was related to playing in coordination and entry games. Increasing strategic uncertainty was correlated with neural activity in the mPFC.