Decision Preceding Negativity in the Iowa Gambling Task: an ERP study

The present study aimed to investigate the slow negative potential (termed Decision Preceding Negativity, DPN, from the family of the Readiness Potential) which precedes a willed risky decision. To this end, evoked potentials preceding and following an economic choice were measured in a sample of 16 male students during the Iowa Gambling Task modified for ERPs recording. Statistics revealed reduced positivity/relative greater negativity (marking relative activation) in right prefrontal sites and reduced negativity (indicating relative inhibition of DPN) in central clusters over left premotor cortex, 500 ms before picking from economically disadvantageous risky decks. Analyses of the potentials elicited by the economic outcome (wins vs. losses) showed the classical frontal negativity (N260) to the economic losses. Results are consistent with the view that an economically risky decision is preceded by a relative inhibition of the planned motor response together with the activation of emotion-related right frontal sites.