Part of brain why people fear losing money

PASADENA, Calif., Feb. 9 (UPI) -- A special brain structure is responsible for fear of monetary losses, researchers at the California Institute of Technology found.

First author Dr. Benedetto De Martino and colleagues studied a phenomenon known as "loss aversion" in two patients with lesions to the amygdala, a region deep within the brain involved in emotions and decision-making. The lesions prevented the patients from perceiving, recognizing or feeling fear.

Each patient -- together with 12 healthy controls -- took part in a task designed to test whether the chance of losing money affected people's likelihood to gamble.

As expected, the healthy individuals were less likely to gamble when the difference between the potential winnings and potential losses was smaller -- if they stood to win $50 but lose $10. However, they would be less likely to gamble if they stood to win $20 but lose $15.

When the potential losses outweighed potential gains, the controls would not gamble. However, the two patients with impaired amygdala activity were much less affected by the disparity between potential gains and losses; even when the potential losses outweighed the potential gains they would choose to gamble, showing a lack of loss aversion.

The finding was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.