Brain Battles

According to Antoine Bechara, USC professor of psychology, "We can see risk as a battle of forces. There is always 

a lure of reward. There's always a fear of failure. These are the 

two forces that are always battling each other." Apparently this is 

rooted in the brain itself. Researchers used fMRI studies at USC's 

Brain and Creativity Institute to locate regions in the prefrontal cortex, 

an area behind the forehead involved in analysis and planning, that 

seem to complete with each other in terms of reward and failure.

Activity in one region identified risk-averse volunteers, while 

activity in a different region was greater in those with an appetite 

for risk.