Impaired decision making in schizophrenia and orbitofrontal cortex lesion patients.

Background: The aim of this study was to examine impaired decision making in patients with schizophrenia and in patients with orbitofrontal cortex lesions.

Methods: Schizophrenia patients (N=21), healthy controls (N=20) and an independent group of orbitofrontal patients (N=10) underwent a computerized version of the "Regret Gambling Task". Participants chose between two gambles, each having different probabilities and different expected monetary outcomes, and rated their emotional states after seeing the obtained outcome.