The Iowa Gambling Task and the somatic marker hypothesis: some questions and answers

doi:10.1016/j.tics.2005.02.002

Trends in Cognitive Sciences

Volume 9, Issue 4, April 2005, Pages 159-162

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2005.02.002 Get rights and content

A recent study by Maia and McClelland on participants' knowledge in the Iowa Gambling Task suggests a different interpretation for an experiment we reported in 1997. The authors use their results to question the evidence for the somatic marker hypothesis. Here we consider whether the authors' conclusions are justified.

Section snippets

Reversal learning

Maia and McClelland suggest that the difficulties of patients with ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPC) damage in IGT performance can be explained by an inability to reverse a learned contingency that such patients sometimes exhibit [11]. Learning to reverse a contingency involves inhibition of a previously rewarded response and shifting to a newly rewarded response. Although some VMPC patients have problems with contingency reversal (e.g. those with posterior orbital lesions, as we 12, 13 and

Knowledge of the situation does not guarantee advantageous decisions

Maia and McClelland state that the ‘question of precisely why VMPC patients can report the changes in contingencies but perseverate in their behavior is a fascinating one that remains to be fully addressed.’ The SMH addresses this question, by proposing that pure cognitive processes unassisted by emotional signals do not guarantee normal behavior in the face of adequate knowledge. Cognitive processing assisted by emotion-related marker signals, conscious or not, contributes to the proper action

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Trends in Cognitive Sciences

Research FocusThe Iowa Gambling Task and the somatic marker hypothesis: some questions and answers

Section snippets

Reversal learning

Knowledge of the situation does not guarantee advantageous decisions

Neuropsychologia

Neuropsychologia

Brain Cogn.

A reexamination of the evidence for the somatic marker hypothesis: What participants really know in the Iowa gambling Task

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A.

Deciding advantageously before knowing the advantageous strategy

Science

Somatic markers and the guidance of behavior: Theory and preliminary testing

Defective somatic markers in sub-clinical psychopathy

Neuroreport

Components of working memory and somatic markers in decision making

Psychon. Bull. Rev.

Is knowing always feeling?

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A.

Ventromedial frontal cortex mediates affective shifting in humans: evidence from a reversal learning paradigm

Brain

Research Focus
The Iowa Gambling Task and the somatic marker hypothesis: some questions and answers