The thalamus network seems responsible for the depression and anxiety affecting risk-taking

Risk-taking refers to making decisions in risky situations that involve both high risk and high payoff. Previous studies have found that depressed and anxious individuals often exhibit impaired function in risk-taking. However, the neural mechanisms responsible for how depression and anxiety affect individuals' risk-taking are still unknown.

Using a sample of 245 participants, functional and structural brain scanning using a 3T MRI machine was performed, along with the depression anxiety stress scale (DASS) test, as well as the balloon analog risk task (BART) test.

The results showed that depression and anxiety symptoms were negatively associated with risk-taking. Also, the GM volumes in the left pallidum and the right cerebellum were negatively correlated with depression, and the GM of the left and right cerebellum were negatively correlated with anxiety. In addition, the resting state networks results indicated that depression and anxiety were positively correlated with the thalamus network. In the analysis on the causality between the scores, depression and anxiety mediated the relationship between the thalamic network and risk-taking behavior through an indirect effect.

In general, our research showed that the thalamic network affects risk-taking by mediating depression and anxiety, and this finding could be a help in the subthreshold mental health disorders.