%0 Journal Article
%T The neural correlates of risk propensity in males and females using resting-state fMRI
%A Yuan Zhou
%A Shu Li
%A John C. Dunn
%A Huandong Li
%A Wen Qin
%A Maohu Zhu
%A Lilin Rao
%A Chunshui Yu
%A Tianzi Jiang
%J Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
%D 2014
%I Frontiers Media
%R 10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00002
%X Men are more risk prone than women, but the underlying basis remains unclear. To investigate this question, we developed a trait-like measure of risk propensity which we correlated with resting-state functional connectivity to identify sex differences. Specifically, we used short- and long-range functional connectivity densities to identify associated brain regions and examined their functional connectivities in resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data collected from a large sample of healthy young volunteers. We found that men had a higher level of general risk propensity (GRP) than women. At the neural level, although they shared a common neural correlate of GRP in a network centered at the right inferior frontal gyrus, men and women differed in a network centered at the right secondary somatosensory cortex, which included the bilateral dorsal anterior/middle insular cortices and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. In addition, men and women differed in a local network centered at the left inferior orbitofrontal cortex. Most of the regions identified by this resting-state fMRI study have been previously implicated in risk processing when people make risky decisions. This study provides a new perspective on the brain-behavioral relationships in risky decision making and contributes to our understanding of sex differences in risk propensity.
%K functional connectivity
%K functional magnetic resonance imaging
%K resting state
%K risk propensity
%K sex difference
%U http://www.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00002/abstract