The Anterior Insula Tracks Behavioral Entropy during an Interpersonal Competitive Game

Hideyuki Takahashi; Keise Izuma; Madoka Matsumoto; Kenji Matsumoto; Takashi Omori

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0123329

The Anterior Insula Tracks Behavioral Entropy during an Interpersonal Competitive Game

Hideyuki Takahashi, Keise Izuma, Madoka Matsumoto, Kenji Matsumoto, Takashi Omori

Psychology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

In competitive situations, individuals need to adjust their behavioral strategy dynamically in response to their opponent's behavior. In the present study, we investigated the neural basis of how individuals adjust their strategy during a simple, competitive game of matching pennies. We used entropy as a behavioral index of randomness in decision-making, because maximizing randomness is thought to be an optimal strategy in the game, according to game theory. While undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), subjects played matching pennies with either a human or computer opponent in each block, although in reality they played the game with the same computer algorithm under both conditions. The winning rate of each block was also manipulated. Both the opponent (human or computer), and the winning rate, independently affected subjects' block-wise entropy during the game. The fMRI results revealed that activity in the bilateral anterior insula was positively correlated with subjects' (not opponent's) behavioral entropy during the game, which indicates that during an interpersonal competitive game, the anterior insula tracked how uncertain subjects' behavior was, rather than how uncertain subjects felt their opponent's behavior was. Our results suggest that intuitive or automatic processes based on somatic markers may be a key to optimally adjusting behavioral strategies in competitive situations.

Original language	English
Article number	e0123329
Journal	PLoS ONE
Volume	10
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0123329
Publication status	Published - 2015

Bibliographical note

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10.1371/journal.pone.0123329

20140404Takahashi2
© 2015 Takahashi et al.
Accepted author manuscript, 957 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "The Anterior Insula Tracks Behavioral Entropy during an Interpersonal Competitive Game",

abstract = "In competitive situations, individuals need to adjust their behavioral strategy dynamically in response to their opponent's behavior. In the present study, we investigated the neural basis of how individuals adjust their strategy during a simple, competitive game of matching pennies. We used entropy as a behavioral index of randomness in decision-making, because maximizing randomness is thought to be an optimal strategy in the game, according to game theory. While undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), subjects played matching pennies with either a human or computer opponent in each block, although in reality they played the game with the same computer algorithm under both conditions. The winning rate of each block was also manipulated. Both the opponent (human or computer), and the winning rate, independently affected subjects' block-wise entropy during the game. The fMRI results revealed that activity in the bilateral anterior insula was positively correlated with subjects' (not opponent's) behavioral entropy during the game, which indicates that during an interpersonal competitive game, the anterior insula tracked how uncertain subjects' behavior was, rather than how uncertain subjects felt their opponent's behavior was. Our results suggest that intuitive or automatic processes based on somatic markers may be a key to optimally adjusting behavioral strategies in competitive situations.",

author = "Hideyuki Takahashi and Keise Izuma and Madoka Matsumoto and Kenji Matsumoto and Takashi Omori",

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AU - Omori, Takashi

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N2 - In competitive situations, individuals need to adjust their behavioral strategy dynamically in response to their opponent's behavior. In the present study, we investigated the neural basis of how individuals adjust their strategy during a simple, competitive game of matching pennies. We used entropy as a behavioral index of randomness in decision-making, because maximizing randomness is thought to be an optimal strategy in the game, according to game theory. While undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), subjects played matching pennies with either a human or computer opponent in each block, although in reality they played the game with the same computer algorithm under both conditions. The winning rate of each block was also manipulated. Both the opponent (human or computer), and the winning rate, independently affected subjects' block-wise entropy during the game. The fMRI results revealed that activity in the bilateral anterior insula was positively correlated with subjects' (not opponent's) behavioral entropy during the game, which indicates that during an interpersonal competitive game, the anterior insula tracked how uncertain subjects' behavior was, rather than how uncertain subjects felt their opponent's behavior was. Our results suggest that intuitive or automatic processes based on somatic markers may be a key to optimally adjusting behavioral strategies in competitive situations.

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