Decision-making in adolescents with non-optimal states of emotional and motivational brain systems

The study was aimed to reveal the relationship between the functional state of the brain cortical-subcortical regulatory systems (RS), efficiency of the voluntary control and the decision-making in a situation of uncertainty in adolescents. The functional state of participants’ RS was assessed by the structural qualitative analysis of individual EEG. Based on the results of the EEG analysis, groups of adolescents with suboptimal functioning of frontothalamic, frontolimbic and frontobasal systems were selected. An experimental task with a monetary reward (Baloon Analog Risk Task) was used to study the decision-making process under uncertainty. The qualitative neuropsychological examination was applied to study the functions of programming, selective regulation and control of activity – executive functions (EF). Different dynamics of betting in the monitized game were revealed depending on the functional state of the RS and the individual characteristics of EF in the studied groups of adolescents. The possibility of a specific influence of the brain systems of voluntary control and emotional-motivational regulation on the decision-making process in adolescence is discussed.