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Losing Money May Actually Be Painful
Financial Loses Linked to Fear and Pain in the Brain
By Jennifer Warner
WebMD Medical News
Losing money may be painful for both your wallet and
your brain.
A
new study shows losing money triggers activity in
the brain in areas commonly associated with pain and
fear.
Although previous studies on gambling have shown
that reward centers in the brain are activated in
response to financial gains, researchers say little
is known about how the brain responds to financial
loss.
"Many everyday financial decisions, such as playing
the lottery or investing money are gambles in some
form or another, and most of these gambles involve
the chances of both gaining and losing money," says
researcher Ben Seymour of the Wellcome Trust Centre
for Neuroimaging at University College London, in a
news release.
"Although we already know an impressive amount about
how the brain learns to predict financial gains,
until now, we have known little about how we deal
with losing money."
Feeling Financial Pain
Researchers recorded the brain activity of 24
healthy adults as they played a gambling game to win
or lose money.
As
in prior studies on risk and reward, they found the
participants learned to predict the risk of
financial reward and loss associated with the task
and this activity occurred in an area of the brain
known as the striatum.
But
researchers also found surprising similarities in
how the brain responded to financial losses and a
system the brain system previously identified for
responding to pain. This system allows the brain to
predict imminent harm and allow defensive action to
start.
They
say this reward and defense system associated with
financial loss was also similar to systems found in
rats, which suggests that it may be an evolutionary
response to avoiding fear and pain.
"This provides a sort of biological justification
for the popular concept of ‘financial pain,’" says
Seymour.
Seymour says learning how the brain responds to
financial loss and gain may help researchers
understand why some people become addicted to
gambling and others do not.
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