应激对风险和社会决策的影响

应激是有机体在受到真实或者潜在的威胁刺激时所表现出来的全身性非特异性反应, 伴随着紧张和焦虑的心理体验, 交感神经系统的兴奋, 糖皮质激素分泌的增多以及脑干−边缘系统−前额叶神经环路的改变。应激对个体在风险决策行为中的风险寻求和风险回避倾向, 社会决策行为中的利己和利他倾向都会产生重要影响。策略使用异常、习惯化和自动化反应增强、反馈学习过程以及奖惩敏感性的改变是应激影响决策行为的认知基础; 应激激素的分泌, 及杏仁核、前额叶等在决策过程发挥重要作用的脑区活动的改变则为应激作用于决策行为的神经基础。未来研究应重点关注：应激的个体差异与应激对决策影响效应多样性的关系; 综合多种指标对应激进行测量; 考察应激的时序效应; 揭示个体的最佳应激水平; 加强对慢性应激影响决策以及应激对决策影响效应可逆性的研究; 揭示应激影响决策的神经机制。

The effects of stress on risky and social decision making

Stress refers to systematically nonspecific reactions to actual or potential threats. It is accompanied with psychological experiences of nervousness and anxiety, excitation of the sympathetic nervous system, increment of glucocorticoid, and alternations in the brainstem-limbic-prefrontal neural circuit. Stress significantly influences risk-seeking and risk-aversive behaviors in risky decision making as well as proself and prosocial behaviors in social decision making. The cognitive basis of stress’s influences on decision making are formed by dysfunctional strategies, an increase of habitual and automatic responses, alterations in feedback processing and changes in reward and punishment sensitivity. On the other hand, the neural foundations of stress’s influences on decision making are formed by secretion of stress hormones and brain activation changes in areas that are crucial in decision making, such as prefrontal cortex, amygdala. Future studies should focus on the following topics: 1) revealing the relationship between individual differences in stress and diverse effects of stress on decision making; 2) measuring stress with multiple indexes; 3) investigating the temporal course of stress; 4) uncovering an individual’s optimal stress level; 5) strengthening research about the influence of chronic stress on decision making and the reversible effects; 6) unlocking the neural mechanism of how stress affects decision making.