How does your brain respond when you think about gambling or taking risks?

On the neurological aspects of risk attitudes. Apparently our brain not only responds to actual rewards but also to potential gains. Potential losses don't seem to activate the parts of the brain that are usually associated with fear or anxiety, instead losses just turn dówn the reward centres in our brain. The finding that the neurological effect of losses is stronger than the effect of gains, is seen as support for prospect theory (and the concept of loss aversion in particular).