The findings of the new Yale study reveal that when other stimuli, independently not related to the decision itself affect your decision ability, these dopamine releases make risky decisions.
The results show how sounds in our environment may influence decisions we make and could further assist investigators in discovering the role of dopamine systems in the brain and their relation to such disorders as schizophrenia and depression.
Most people would think that it is uncomfortable to hear an unexpected sound that seems popping during the work and it may cause the mistakes, the focus loss, etc said Robb Rutledge, an assistant professor of psychology of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the study author.
“But when we try to think about it in terms of neurobiology, we do know that dopamine is involved in the process of decision making and that the sound of the horn earns a short burst of dopamine.”
That is because the sound may be signaling something important, said Rutledge, such as something rewarding. On the one hand, if a decision is made, there may be short bursts of dopamine involved, at least in part, by virtue of the brain’s estimate of how rewarding the choices are.
“And this is what we discovered: that such surprising sensory events, the ones that are defined as these sequences of tones, actually raised people’s level of risk-taking,” said Feng.
In particular, the risky option was chosen 4% more often on average when the rare sequence was presented to the participants as compared to the common sequence. They also took the other option which they had not done in the previous trial if the sound they heard contained the rare sequence.
In other trials conducted by the researchers, both sequences were played out with equal frequency and therefore minimizing both effects. Similarly, researchers transposed the sequences in such a manner whereby that which ended on a different tone was played most frequently. In those studies, rare sequences did not elevate the risky decision but enhanced the probability of changing in the previous trial’s choices.
‘That would indicate that it may actually hold separately, which means that there could be some other “neurology” that gives rise to these two effects.’ Feng said. Dopamine is implicated in many disorders, according to Rutledge, including psychotic disorder seen in schizophrenia.
But, as for the human participants, there are no methods that would allow a more detailed investigation of the dopamine system using longer periods of time, except for several pharmaceuticals.
‘Perhaps, with sounds, we can give brief, short highs resembling dopamine in human,’ said Feng. “It could help the researchers to comprehend to what degree dopamine impacts the decisions made by people.”
Locklear M. Surprising sounds could cause riskier decision-making
