Study looks at risktaking

A TUG of war takes place between the right and left side of the brain when we gamble or make risky decisions, research has shown.

The highrolling right brain pushes us to take a chance while the sensible left urges us to hold back.

Which one wins partly depends on previous experience.

A recent spate of successful bets or decisions that pay off in everyday life creates a ‘‘bias’’ that translates into more risktaking even in the face of poor odds, scientists found.

Conversely, a bias in the other direction will cause the ‘‘sensible’’ brain to dominate and make a person riskaverse.

‘‘When your right brain has highfrequency activity and you get a gamble, you’re pushed to take more of a risk,’’ said Dr Pierre Sacre, of Johns Hopkins University in the US, who coled the study.

‘‘But if the left side has highfrequency activity, it’s pulling you away from taking a risk. We call this a pushpull system.’’

The scientists studied patients who had electrodes implanted in their brains. Participants were shown two cards on a screen, one face up and the other face down.

They had to bet low or high that their card had a higher value than the computer’s hidden one.

A mathematical equation developed by the team successfully calculated each patient’s bias based on their past wagers.

The findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.