Attentional deployment impacts neural response to regret

Regret results from comparing non-optimal outcomes containing both gain and loss parts to better alternatives during decision-making. The present fMRI study aimed to explore whether levels of regret could change when gain or loss part of a non-optimal outcome was focused during a sequential risk taking task, i.e. the effect of an important emotional regulation strategy named as attentional deployment on regret. Participants were asked to open a series of boxes consecutively and decided when to stop. Each box contained a reward, except for one containing a devil to zero one’s gain in the trial. After participants stopped, both collected gains and missed chances were revealed. Besides, participants were induced to focus on collected gains (GF) or missed chances (MF), by highlighting different parts of the outcome with red squares. Behaviorally, participants rated less regret to their decisions in GF than MF context. Moreover, participants tended to be less risk-taking after GF context relative to MF. At the neural level, bilateral straitum showed increased activations in both optimal outcome and GF context. However, right MFG and IPL only showed stronger activation in GF than MF context. Additionally, pgACC and mPFC activations were found only in optimal outcome.