How incidental affect and emotion regulation modulate decision making under risk

Emotions have long been suspected to play an important role in decision making, e.g. theoretic approaches propose that both cognitive and affective processes play a role in the valuation of choice alternatives. There are two main mechanisms, how affect can modulate decision-making processes: First, incidental affect, which can be defined as a baseline affective state that is unrelated to the decision, may carry over to the assessment of choice options. Second, emotional reactions to the choice may be incorporated into the assessment of choice options. Crucially, this modulatory relationship between affect and choice is reciprocal: changing emotion can change choices. Here we report results of some of our recent studies characterizing the multiple modulatory neural circuits underlying the different means by which emotion and affect can influence choices.