EEG Activity Associated to Investment Decisions: Gender Differences

Abstract

Literature in finance and neurosciences shows that male and female differ on many relevant issues concerning financial decision investment. Here, we studied the EEG activity recorded while volunteers were playing a stock trading game to investigate these gender differences. 20 males and 20 females made 100 trading decisions using a portfolio of 200 shares of 7 different companies. Males and females were equally successful in earning above the market. sLORETA was used to identify sources of EEG recorded 2 seconds before trading decision. Results showed that male and female use different sets of neuron to make equally successful financial decisions.

Keywords: Neurofinance, EEG, stock investment, brain activation, Loreta, Decision making