Working memory performance may not depend on intact decision-making abilities, but WM dysfunction can mediate impaired decision making.
Cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to the frontal cortex has shown to impair decision making in healthy volunteers.
The study subjects then went on to complete something called the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), a classic research tool that evaluates impaired decision making.
Their paper, titled "Excessive social media users demonstrate impaired decision making in the Iowa Gambling Task" (Meshi, Elizarova, Bender and Verdejo-Garcia) and published in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions, indicates that people who use social media sites heavily actually display some of the behavioral hallmarks of someone addicted to cocaine or heroin.
The fact that in both studies subjects failed to compensate for this loss of accuracy by increasing search time appropriately as the number of items increased, even with feedback (speed and accuracy) on every trial, implies impaired decision making.
The complex relationship among tattooing, impulsiveness, risky decision-making, Axis I and II psychopathology, gender, substance use disorders, sociodemographic charachteristics and particular brain mechanisms underlying the impaired decision making process merits large-scale investigation.
Because of its psychogenic nature and capability of impairing decision making [ 40], alcohol use has been associated with HIV/STI risk behaviors in both developed and developing countries [ 13, 14].
Rudnick [ 16] suggests that the predominance of cognitive tests in instruments such as the various versions of the MCCAT [ 17] underplay emotional factors which may impair decision making in depressed patients for treatment.
We recently reported that prolonged exposure to the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) ligand corticosterone impairs decision-making that is dependent on the predictive relationship between an action and its outcome (Gourley et al. ; Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2012).
If potential participants demonstrate impaired decision-making ability based on the UBACC, proxy consent is obtained in compliance with local regulations for legally authorized representatives.
Meanwhile, too much carbon dioxide in an office has been shown to impair decision making and make employees feel tired.
