Biological Psychology 65 (2003) 81–88

Application of the somatic marker hypothesis to

individual differences in decision making
Atsunobu Suzuki a,∗ , Akihisa Hirota b , Noriyoshi Takasawa b ,
Kazuo Shigemasu a
a Department of Cognitive and Behavioral Science, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of
Tokyo, 3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan
b Psychology Section, Department of First Forensic Science, National Research Institute of Police Science,

6-3-1 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa-shi, Chiba 277-0882, Japan

Received 28 November 2002; accepted 15 May 2003

Abstract

The somatic marker hypothesis (Damasio, Tranel, & Damasio, 1991) is a controversial theory
asserting that somatic activities implicitly bias human behavior. In this study, we examined the re-
lationship between choice behaviors in the Iowa Gambling Task and patterns of skin conductance
responses (SCRs) within a healthy population. Results showed that low SCRs for appraising the
monetary outcome of risky decisions were related to persistence in risky choices. Such adherence
to risky decisions was not related to poor explicit knowledge about the task. On the other hand,
anticipatory SCRs and the effect of them on performance were not confirmed. Our findings sug-
gest that a variation in covert physiological appraisal underlies individual differences in decision
making.
© 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Somatic marker; Iowa Gambling Task; Individual difference; Decision making; Appraisal

1. Introduction

The somatic marker hypothesis asserts that somatic activation covertly guides human
decision making (Damasio, 1994; Damasio et al., 1991). According to this hypothesis, each

∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +81-3-5454-6896; fax: +81-3-5454-6979.

E-mail address: suzuki@bayes.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp (A. Suzuki).

0301-0511/$ – see front matter © 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S0301-0511(03)00093-0
82 A. Suzuki et al. / Biological Psychology 65 (2003) 81–88

behavioral option is associated with unconscious somatic responses (here, including neural
responses) evoked by its previous consequences. The associated somatic responses, or the
somatic markers, are activated by the mere thought of an option and either encourage or
discourage the option.
Studies with the Iowa Gambling Task (Bechara et al., 1994) have provided evidence of
the somatic marker hypothesis. In this task, participants sequentially select a card from
four decks of cards and receive the monetary outcome (reward and punishment) after each
selection. Two decks (conservative decks) yield small rewards and small punishments,
whereas the other two decks (risky decks) yield large rewards and large punishments.
Selections of a conservative deck result in an overall gain because the punishment is smaller
than the reward in total. On the other hand, selections of a risky deck result in an overall
loss because the punishment is larger than the reward in total. In the beginning of the
task, healthy people tend to select more cards from risky decks. As the task progresses,
however, they come to prefer conservative decks and begin to generate skin conductance
responses (SCRs) before selecting cards from risky decks (Bechara et al., 1999, 1997,
1996). Such anticipatory SCRs are thought to be one of the somatic markers inhibiting risky
decisions.
In contrast, patients with the ventromedial prefrontal (VMF) cortex damage or with the
amygdala lesion prefer risky decks throughout the task and fail to generate anticipatory
SCRs (Bechara et al., 1999, 1997, 1996). Moreover, healthy people and patients with VMF
lesion generate SCRs after receiving the monetary outcome (appraisal SCRs), whereas
amygdala-damaged patients fail to generate them (Bechara et al., 1999). Bechara et al.
(1999) assumes that amygdala damage produces an inability to evoke somatic responses,
which appraise an affective situation, and that VMF damage causes an inability to integrate
all of such somatic sensations. Because somatic markers are acquired through integration
of somatic appraisals, both defects preclude the acquisition of somatic markers and thus
lead to decision-making impairment.
Although studies above focused on considerable changes after brain injuries, it is likely
that individual differences in decision making are also related to covert somatic activities,
considering the variation in affective physiological responses within a normal population
(Bechara et al., 1999; Garpenstrand et al., 2001; Hariri et al., 2002). Thus the purpose of
our present study was to examine the relationship between decision-making behavior and
electrodermal activity in a healthy population. Based on the somatic marker hypothesis and
the diagnostics of VMF and amygdala damage, we tested the following two predictions;
(1) people who generate low appraisal SCRs tend to adhere to risky choices, and (2) people
who generate low anticipatory SCRs tend to adhere to risky choices.

2. Methods

2.1. Participants

Forty undergraduate students at the University of Tokyo were recruited and were paid
for their participation. There were 27 men and 13 women. Their age was between 18 and
23 (M = 19.9, S.D. = 1.29).
 A. Suzuki et al. / Biological Psychology 65 (2003) 81–88 83

2.2. Procedure

The participants performed a gambling task by watching a computer screen in front of

them. The participants were told that they were given a
2000 credit to start the task, and that
the task required a long series of card-selections from four decks (labeled as “P”, “Q”, “R”,
and “S”) displayed on the screen. After each selection, the participants received a monetary
reward. However, sometimes they were not only given a monetary reward but also asked to
pay a monetary punishment. The goal of the task was to win as much money as possible.
In the beginning of every trial, the computer displayed a message, “Consider which deck
you will choose.” The participants were asked to consider which deck to choose and were
not allowed to select any card until this instruction disappeared. Ten seconds later, the mes-
sage changed and said, “Tell me the deck you chose.” Then the participants were allowed
to select a deck by uttering the name of it. After the selection, the computer displayed
monetary outcome as follows, “The deck you chose: W, Reward: X yen, Punishment: Y yen,
Amount of money you possess: Z yen.” This feedback message lasted in 10 s and then the
next trial started.
Two decks P and R were conservative in the sense that their monetary reward and punish-
ment were small. Every selection of a conservative deck yielded a
50 reward. At the same
time, every ten selections of Deck P gave five punishments summing up to
250, whereas
every ten selections of Deck R gave one punishment of
250. Therefore, selections of a
conservative deck resulted in an overall gain (+
250 in total after every ten selections). In
contrast, the remaining two decks Q and S were risky in the sense that their monetary reward
and punishment were large. Every selection of a risky deck yielded a
100 reward. At the
same time, every ten selections of Deck S gave five punishments summing up to
1250,
whereas every ten selections of Deck Q gave one punishment of
1250. Therefore, selec-
tions of a risky deck resulted in an overall loss (−
250 in total after every ten selections). The
risks of each deck of yielding reward and punishment were not disclosed to the participants.
The current procedure was similar to Bechara et al. (1999), but with some minor mod-
ifications. Although the schedule of reward and punishment followed the original version
(Bechara et al., 1994), the denomination “dollar” was replaced with Japanese “yen” (e.g.

100 instead of $100). In order to enhance the participants’ motivation to perform well,
they were told that half of their winnings were going to be paid to them. The current
task contained 80 selections, less than the 100 selections in Bechara studies, because the
performance of healthy people became stable early in our pilot study.
After the gambling task, the participants were asked to rank the risk of each deck on a
scale ranging from 1 (very dangerous) to 7 (very safe).

2.3. Skin conductance recording

Skin conductance was measured from two Nihon Kohden 10-mm Ag/AgCl disposable
electrodes (Vitrode P-150) filled with 0.1095 M NaCl electrolyte placed on the volar side of
the distal phalanges of the index and middle fingers of the right hand.1 The electrode sites

1 The current concentration of NaCl (0.1095 M) exceeds the recommended concentration of 0.050–0.075 M

(Fowles et al., 1981). Hygge and Hugdahl (1985) recorded SCRs using four electrodes with the concentrations of
84 A. Suzuki et al. / Biological Psychology 65 (2003) 81–88

were cleansed with ethanol beforehand. The electrodes were connected to a Vega Systems
SCL/R Unit, which imposed constant 0.5 V across the electrodes. We defined anticipatory
SCRs as the amplitude of the largest SCRs (␮S) having onset during the 10-s time period
when the message of “Consider which deck you will choose,” was on the screen. We also
defined appraisal SCRs as the amplitude of the largest SCRs (␮S) having onset within a time
window from 2 to 10 s after the outcome appeared. In analyses, we used the log-transformed
scores of these SCRs (log ␮S).

3. Results

If appraisal SCRs do reflect the appraisal process, their magnitude should vary as a
consequence of each decision. Table 1 shows the means of appraisal SCRs as a func-
tion of three factors of monetary outcome (without punishment [i.e. the outcome was re-
ward only] or with punishment [i.e. the outcome included both reward and punishment]),
deck type (conservative decks or risky decks), and block of trials (the early 40 trials or
the late 40 trials). A 2 × 2 × 2 repeated ANOVA on the means of appraisal SCRs with
the three factors demonstrated statistically significant main effects of outcome (M[S.D.]
for without punishment vs. with punishment 0.209[0.185] vs. 0.231[0.209], F(1,35)=
7.93, P < 0.01), deck type (M[S.D.] for conservative vs. risky 0.191[0.169] vs.
0.248[0.220], F(1,35)=16.29, P < 0.001), and block of trials (M[S.D.] for early vs. late
0.235[0.199] vs. 0.204[0.196], F(1,35) = 5.18, P < 0.05), but no significant interaction (all
Ps > 0.15).
By definition, anticipatory SCRs ought to be greater in magnitude for risky decks than for
conservative decks and should increase as the task progresses. Table 1 also shows the means
of the anticipatory SCRs as a function of the two factors of deck type and block of trials.
A 2 × 2 repeated ANOVA on the means of anticipatory SCRs with the two factors revealed
a significant main effect of deck type (M[S.D.] for conservative vs. risky 0.092[0.082] vs.
0.114[0.102], F(1,37) = 8.84, P < 0.01), but no significant main effect of block or interaction
(both Ps > 0.10).
In order to examine our predictions that low appraisal/anticipatory SCRs are related to risk
seeking, we calculated the correlations between the mean appraisal/anticipatory SCRs for
risky selections in any block and the number of risky selections in any block (Table 2). For
appraisal SCRs, only the negative correlation between the mean appraisal SCRs in the early
trials and the number of risky decisions during the late trials was significant (r = −0.371,
t(38) = −2.46, P < 0.05). On the other hand, statistical tests revealed no significant corre-
lation concerning anticipatory SCRs (all Ps > 0.05).
To further examine the relationship between appraisal SCRs and performance, we sub-
divided 40 participants into the high-SCR group (17 men and three women), consisting of

0.017, 0.050, 0.083, and 0.117 M NaCl. Although they found no effect of the NaCl concentration on SCRs to deep
breaths, they reported larger SCRs to loud noise with the highest concentration. No good account for this finding
has been provided yet, but the use of a hypertonic electrode gel might elevate the levels of SCRs recorded in the
current experiment. Nevertheless, it is not expected that this effect would affect comparisons across participants
(Clements and Turpin, 1995), which constitute the main results of this study.
 A. Suzuki et al. / Biological Psychology 65 (2003) 81–88 85

Table 1
Mean appraisal SCRs (log ␮S) as a function of monetary outcome, deck type, and block, and mean anticipatory
SCRs (log ␮S) as a function of deck type and block
Outcome Deck type Block M S.D.

Appraisal SCRsa
Without Punishment Conservative Early 0.204 0.175
Late 0.162 0.145
Risky Early 0.234 0.191
Late 0.235 0.220
With Punishment Conservative Early 0.221 0.197
Late 0.179 0.155
Risky Early 0.282 0.229
Late 0.242 0.242

Anticipatory SCRsb
Conservative Early 0.104 0.092
Late 0.080 0.071
Risky Early 0.116 0.096
Late 0.112 0.109
Participants who lacked data in any condition were removed.
a n = 36.
b n = 38.

the participants whose mean appraisal SCRs for risky decisions in the early trials were in
the upper half, and the low-SCR group (ten men and ten women), consisting of the rest, and
compared the performance of the two groups. A 2 × 2 repeated ANOVA on the number of
risky selections in association with group (high-SCR or low-SCR) and block of trials (early
trials or late trials) yielded a significant interaction, F(1, 38) = 16.56, P < 0.001. Fig. 1 rep-
resents the mean number of cards selected from risky decks as a function of group and block.
Statistical tests on the number of risky selections of the two groups showed that only the
difference in the late trials was significant (t(38) = 1.51, P > 0.1 for early; t(38) = − 2.82,
P < 0.01 for late). Although sex ratios of the two groups were unequal, t-tests comparing
the number of risky selections between men and women showed no significant difference

Table 2
Correlations between the mean appraisal/anticipatory SCRs for risky selections in any block and the number of
risky selections in any block
Selections Appraisal SCRs Anticipatory SCRs

Early Late Early Late

Early r 0.201 0.073 0.165 0.283

na 40 38 40 38
Late r −0.371* −0.256 −0.294 −0.177
na 40 38 40 38
Two participants who did not select from risky decks in the late trials were removed before calculating correlations
concerning the mean appraisal/anticipatory SCRs in the late trials. *, P < 0.05.
a Number of participants used to calculate correlations.
86 A. Suzuki et al. / Biological Psychology 65 (2003) 81–88

Fig. 1. Mean number of cards (± S.E.) selected from risky decks in each block for high-SCR group and for
low-SCR group.

in either block (M[S.D.] for men vs. women 20.6[4.78] vs. 20.0[2.45] for early; 10.4[8.16]
vs. 10.8[3.80] for late).
We calculated the number of participants who chose each alternative in rating the risk
of each deck for the high-SCR group and for the low-SCR group separately in order to
compare conscious knowledge on the task between the two groups (Table 3). Statistical
tests between the answers of the high-SCR group and those of the low-SCR group yielded
no significant difference (Kolmogorov–Smirnov test: Deck P D = 0.300, P > 0.3; Deck Q
D = 0.200, P > 0.8; Deck R D = 0.100, P > 0.999; Deck S D = 0.100, P > 0.999).

Table 3
Frequencies of participants of the high-SCR group and low-SCR group who selected each alternative in rating the
risk of each deck
Deck Groupa Risk rate

very dangerous very safe

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

P High-SCR 0 0 1 2 2 4 11
Low-SCR 0 0 0 4 6 5 5
Q High-SCR 14 4 1 1 0 0 0
Low-SCR 10 4 3 3 0 0 0
R High-SCR 0 0 2 4 5 5 4
Low-SCR 0 0 2 6 4 3 5
S High-SCR 2 6 10 2 0 0 0
Low-SCR 1 9 7 2 1 0 0
a n = 20 for each group.
 A. Suzuki et al. / Biological Psychology 65 (2003) 81–88 87

4. Discussion

The fact that appraisal SCRs varied with monetary outcome and deck type eliminates
the possibility that appraisal SCRs were caused by a mere artifact such as verbal utterance.
In other words, appraisal SCRs in the current experiment are indeed one of the emotional
responses reflecting appraisal on the content of the choice. Larger SCRs both to risky decks
and to with-punishment outcomes are consistent with the claim that electrodermal responses
are proportional to the affective value, and especially sensitive to the negative one (Fowles,
1980). Also a decline in the amplitude of SCRs over trials may be due to habituation.
A series of results demonstrating that appraisal SCRs in the early trials and risky decisions
in the late trials were negatively correlated support our first prediction that people with low
appraisal SCRs tend to adhere to risky choices. Although this is a correlational finding, the
time course of this effect supports our causal view that earlier appraisal SCRs influence later
risky decisions, and not vice versa. Moreover, men and women did not differ in the number
of risky selections, suggesting that our results are not confounded by a sex difference in the
amplitude of SCRs. In addition, the analysis of the risk rating showed that both high- and
low-appraisal-SCR participants correctly rated each deck as safe or dangerous, suggesting
that the differences in behavior cannot be attributed to differences in explicit knowledge. The
result confirms the essential role of covert somatic activation in decision making (Bechara
et al., 1997).
In contrast with the clear-cut findings on appraisal SCRs, results regarding the anticipa-
tory SCRs were less clear. Larger anticipatory SCRs for risky decks support the view that
anticipatory SCRs warn against risky decisions (Bechara et al., 1999, 1996), whereas the
lack of a time–course increase in the amplitude is not consistent with the idea that antic-
ipatory SCRs are acquired through experience (Bechara et al., 1997, 1996). Moreover, a
relationship between anticipatory SCRs and performance was not supported by our data.
It is possible that, in our study, the anticipatory SCRs were affected by orientation, verbal
utterance, appraisal on the temporal winning, and so forth, and that these irrelevant factors,
liable to habituation, obscured the time–course increase. In addition, as Damasio (1994)
states, the body-bypassed activities within the central nervous system (e.g. Critchley et al.,
2000; O’Doherty et al., 2001) can also bias decision making. Involvement of these neural
markers might have reduced the effect of peripheral markers in our study. However, behav-
ioral guidance by anticipatory peripheral activities is the essential part of the somatic marker
hypothesis, and our failure to detect anticipatory SCRs indicates that they are sensitive to
several aspects of the experimental condition as well as to decision-making processes. Fur-
ther research concerning the reliability and robustness of the anticipatory-SCR effect is
necessary to validate this theory.
Nevertheless, the current study successfully relates differential performance to the vari-
ation in physiological appraisal consistent with the somatic marker hypothesis. Our results
make sense given that somatic appraisal involves the amygdala (Bechara et al., 1999), the
function of which is crucial for emotion and social behavior (Adolphs and Damasio, 2000;
LeDoux, 1996). Also, the relationship between SCRs and risk seeking accords with the
view that phasic electrodermal responses are associated with behavioral inhibition (Arnett
and Newman, 2000; Fowles, 1980). There are a growing number of attempts to associate
behavioral dispositions with biological entities (e.g. Garpenstrand et al., 2001; Hariri et al.,
88 A. Suzuki et al. / Biological Psychology 65 (2003) 81–88

2002; Lesch et al., 1996), but an integrated view is needed. The somatic marker hypothesis
is one of the refined neurobiological theories on decision making, and research based on
such a specific neurobehavioral model will provide us with a coherent perspective into the
biological basis of human behavior.

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