Posterior parietal cortex is causally involved in reward valuation but not in probability weighting during risky choice

Abstract

Abstract This study provides evidence that the posterior parietal cortex is causally involved in risky decision making via the processing of reward values but not reward probabilities. In the within-group experimental design, participants performed a binary lottery choice task following transcranial magnetic stimulation of the right posterior parietal cortex, left posterior parietal cortex, and a right posterior parietal cortex sham (placebo) stimulation. The continuous theta-burst stimulation protocol supposedly downregulating the cortical excitability was used. Both, mean–variance and the prospect theory approach to risky choice showed that the posterior parietal cortex stimulation shifted participants toward greater risk aversion compared with sham. On the behavioral level, after the posterior parietal cortex stimulation, the likelihood of choosing a safer option became more sensitive to the difference in standard deviations between lotteries, compared with sham, indicating greater risk avoidance within the mean–variance framework. We also estimated the shift in prospect theory parameters of risk preferences after posterior parietal cortex stimulation. The hierarchical Bayesian approach showed moderate evidence for a credible change in risk aversion parameter toward lower marginal reward value (and, hence, lower risk tolerance), while no credible change in probability weighting was observed. In addition, we observed anecdotal evidence for a credible increase in the consistency of responses after the left posterior parietal cortex stimulation compared with sham.