Characteristic Of Risk Decision Making In Older Adults Under Gain And Loss Framework

Risk decision is closely related to people's daily life.Nowadays,the trend of population aging in China is increasing,and people are paying more and more attention to the risk decision–making of the aging population.The problem of risk decision–making faced by the elderly is very complex.Understanding the risk preference of the elderly under the two frameworks of gain/loss is of certain practical significance to help the elderly make better decisions and improve the quality of life and mental health of the elderly.Inconsistent conclusions on the basis of existing research,the research method is relatively single,and less with the advanced imaging technology of combining the present situation,this study intends to use a variety of research paradigm and high temporal resolution of ERP(Event Related Potential,ERP)technology,the combination of contrast the old and the young tendency between risk decision in different situation,to further explore the characteristics of the risk decision–making in the gain and loss within the framework of the elderly and electrophysiological mechanism.This study is divided into three parts.In the first study,the risk preference index scale was used to preliminarily explore the risk decision preference of 166 young people and 165 old people under the gain/loss framework.Study 2A on the basis of study 1,using the adapted version of the risk decision cup task to examine the risk decision characteristics of 25 young people and 25 old people under the framework of the gain/loss task,and at the same time further incorporate other variables such as subjects' risk preferences,response time and expected value sensitivity into the data analysis,explore the risk decision-making characteristics of the elderly under the gain and loss framework from many aspects;Study 2B used the adapted version of the risk decision cup task and ERP technology to examine 20 young and 20 old people in gain/loss framework of risk decision–making characteristics and explore the electrophysiological mechanism,focus on the elderly and young people under the framework of gain/loss risk decision–making induced specific electrical components(such as N2,P2,P3)whether there was a significant difference.The results of this study are as follows :(1)In study 1,the questionnaire method was used to find that the participants had an interaction when making risk decisions under the gain/loss framework,the elderly are more conservative than the young in the gain framework,and more risky than the young under the loss framework.(2)Study 2A experiment a further confirms the results of study 1 that the elderly are more risky than the young under the loss framework;At the same time,both the old and the young are sensitive to the expected value level when making risk decisions,and they can make better decisions according to different expected value levels.However,the sensitivity of the old to the expected value level has decreased.There is interaction between the reaction time of the old and the young when they make the risk decision under the gain/loss framework.The reaction time of the young people when they make the risk decision under the loss framework is longer than that under the gain framework.(3)Study 2B found that the amplitude and latency of N2,P2 and P3 induced by risk decision making in the gain/loss framework were different between the elderly and the young.The amplitude of N2 in the elderly was smaller than that in the young,P2 was larger than that in the young,and P3 latency was longer than that in the young.When young people make risk decisions under the loss framework,the P2 amplitude induced is greater than that under the gain framework,and when old people make risk decisions under the loss framework,the P3 amplitude induced is smaller than that of young people.These results indicate that there is an age difference between the elderly and the young when making risk decisions under the gain/loss framework.The attention bias to the negative emotional information contained in the loss framework is found in the young,but not in the elderly.The elderly's decision–making function is impaired to a certain extent,which is mainly manifested in: the sensitivity of the elderly to the level of expected value is decreased;the amplitude of P2 induced by the elderly in risk decision–making task is larger than that induced by the young,which shows that their ability to suppress irrelevant information is weakened;the amplitude of N2 induced by the elderly in risk decision-making is smaller than that of the young,indicating that their cognitive control ability is worse than that of the young;the amplitude of P3 induced by the elderly in risk decision–making under the loss framework is smaller than that of the young,indicating that they pay more attention to positive emotional information in risk decision–making and are not sensitive to decision conflicts induced by loss options,so they will be more risky under the loss framework.