Alpha Power in the Cingulate Cortex reflects Accumulated Winnings During Gambling in Humans

When making bets one’s level of attention determines how much they may win. The cingulate cortex is a brain region associated with attention and may influence behaviors during gambling. With data gathered from the cingulate cortex in humans implanted with depth electrodes for clinical purposes while performing a gambling task of high card, we determine a relationship between neural correlates of attention and accumulated winnings. Specifically, we analyze how changes in alpha power (8-12 Hz) in the CC relate to accumulated winnings. We compared three subjects with different betting strategies: Reflexive (betting low on cards 2, 4, and 6), Logical (varying how they bet on card 6), and Illogical (betting randomly on all cards). We found that alpha power encodes attention in the cingulate cortex and relates to their accumulated winnings, especially in the illogical subject who had the least winning.