Single dose testosterone administration modulates emotional reactivity and counterfactual choice in healthy males

Psychoneuroendocrinology
Yin WuHong Li

Abstract

Testosterone has been implicated in the regulation of emotional responses and risky decision-making. However, the causal effect of testosterone upon emotional decision-making, especially in non-social settings, is still unclear. The present study investigated the role of testosterone in counterfactual thinking: regret is an intense negative emotion that arises from comparison of an obtained outcome from a decision against a better, non-obtained (i.e. counterfactual) alternative. Healthy male participants (n = 64) received a single-dose of 150 mg testosterone Androgel in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, between-participants design. At 180 min post-administration, participants performed the counterfactual thinking task. We applied a computational model derived from behavioral economic principles to uncover latent decision-making mechanisms that may be invisible in simple choice analyses. Our data showed that testosterone increased the ability to use anticipated regret to guide choice behavior, while reducing choice based on expected value. On affective ratings, testosterone increased sensitivity to both obtained and counterfactual outcomes. These findings provide evidence that testosterone causally modulates emotional decision...Continue Reading

Citations

Sep 9, 2020·Stress : the International Journal on the Biology of Stress·Yin WuHong Li
Nov 30, 2018·Frontiers in Psychology·Jiajun LiaoYin Wu
Oct 16, 2020·Hormones and Behavior·Chengyang HanYin Wu
Mar 17, 2021·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Jianxin OuPhilippe N Tobler
Jul 3, 2021·Hormones and Behavior·Steven J StantonJustin M Carré

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