Effects of loss aversion on neural responses to loss outcomes: an event-related potential study

Loss aversion is the tendency to prefer avoiding losses over acquiring gains of the same amount. To shed light onthe spatio-temporal processes underlying loss aversion, we analysed the associations between individual lossaversion and electrophysiological responses to loss and gain outcomes in a monetary gamble task.Electroencephalographic feedback-related negativity (FRN) was computed in 29 healthy participants as thedifference in electrical potentials between losses and gains. Loss aversion was evaluated using non-linearparametric fitting of choices in a separate gamble task.Loss aversion correlated positively with FRN amplitude (233–263 ms) at electrodes covering the lower face.Feedback related potentials were modelled by five equivalent source dipoles. From these dipoles, strongeractivity in a source located in the orbitofrontal cortex was associated with loss aversion.The results suggest that loss aversion implemented during risky decision making is related to a valuationprocess in the orbitofrontal cortex, which manifests during learning choice outcomes.