Decision making in complex and uncertain situations is a fundamental adaptive process resulting from the integration of several executive functions. Impaired decision-making is a symptomatic feature of a number of psychiatric disorders. In general, patients with psychiatric disorders show a propensity to prefer actions associated with large short-term gains but long-term losses preferentially to those associated with small but long-term gains. They are more likely to select risky options and show an altered temporal horizon of risks and benefits. Moreover, clinical studies report that dopamine therapy induce impaired decision-making in patients with dopaminergic dysfunction such as Parkinson's disease and Redox-less syndrome. Thus, to establish and optimize the animal model of impaired decision-making is important for development of new therapeutic strategy in these disorders.
To clarify the underlying neurobiology of decision-making, we conducted a study in healthy mice by using a mouse gambling operant test based on uncertainty and conflicting choices. Mice chose the low-risk / low-reward option on the reward amount- and provability-dependent manner. Our findings suggest that healthy mice prefer risk-aversive choice in this operant test as dose man in Iowa gambling test.