Losing Money Causes Plastic Changes in the Brain

A new study reveals that financial losses trigger neuroplasticity alterations in the brain’s auditory cortex. This research highlights how money-related stress can induce significant changes in brain structure, particularly in areas responsible for processing sound. These findings offer insight into how financial strain impacts cognitive functions.

The sight of an envelope from the tax authority, a drop in currency rate, or the sad face of your chief accountant can signal forthcoming financial troubles. Consequently, cognitive neuroscientists at HSE University explored how the brain learns to recognize and respond to such situations. They used a popular economic game—the monetary incentive delay (MID) task—to investigate whether these scenarios cause changes in brain function.

The MID Task requires that a person gives a quick response to a signal indicating an opportunity to receive a reward or avoid a loss. Consequently, it helps to divide brain mechanisms of reward processing into separate stages: expectation of reward and learning.

A total of 29 subjects participated in an economic game designed to study the effects of financial losses on brain function. During the game, sound signals were used to predict various types of financial losses, ranging from one to fifty-one monetary units per round. The aim was to investigate how anticipating the loss of money affects auditory processing.

How Money-Related Stress Rewires the Brain: Insights from Economic Games and Neural Learning

Participants had to respond quickly and accurately to these audio cues to minimize their financial losses. This setup helped researchers assess how varying monetary losses affect the brain’s auditory cortex and cognitive responses.

The study revealed that significant financial losses from games cause plastic changes in the brain’s auditory cortex. Consequently, this brain region differentiates sounds associated with large monetary losses, showing how financial stress impacts auditory processing.

Scientists discovered that the ‘learning signal’ during the MID Task links to plastic changes in the brain. Participants with a stronger neural ‘learning signal’ showed more significant plastic changes in response to financial stress. This suggests that the brain responds to money-related stress by adapting and learning.

The experiment suggests that economic experiences alter brain function, changing how external signals are perceived and processed. Interestingly, the brain learns to recognize important economic signals automatically. Furthermore, scientists have detailed how brain rewiring occurs and highlighted dopamine’s role in individual differences in learning systems.