When you make a decision, certain neurons in your brain emit short bursts of the neurotransmitter dopamine. A new Yale study shows that when other factors wholly unrelated to the decision at hand—such as an unexpected sound—trigger these dopamine bursts it can lead to riskier decision-making. The findings demonstrate how sounds around us may affect our choices and could also help researchers better understand dopamine systems in the brain and how they contribute to conditions like schizophrenia and depression.
The study was published Sept. 13 in Nature Communications . "Many of us might have the intuition that hearing an unexpected sound would be distracting, that it might lead to errors or a loss of focus," said Robb Rutledge, an assistant professor of psychology in Yale's Faculty of Arts and Sciences and senior author of the study.
"But when we think about the neurobiology, we know that dopamine plays a role in decision-making and a surprising sound leads to a short burst of dopamine." That's because the sound may indicate something important, said Rutledge, like something rewarding. When we make a decision, short dopamine bursts may be involved, in part, because the brain is weighing how rewarding the options are.
Rutledge and Gloria Feng, a Ph.D. student in Rutledge's lab and lead author of the study, wondered if a surprising sound unrelated to a decision might influence the decision nonetheless, because of this shared dopamine action.
In a series of seven different e.