How Do We Make Decisions? In a Very Important But Small Part of Our Brain
So you can't decide. Pinot or Chardonnay? A Lexus or a BMW? The man who makes seven figures a year but likes to stay home and watch home movies or the guy who barely can pay the rent but takes you out on his motorcycle with the wind dancing through your hair?
Tough decisions, maybe. But a small part of your brain is very instrumental in making them, according to newswise.com.
Choosing what shirt to buy, what to order for lunch or whether to go with the hearty red wine or the lighter white all involve assigning values to the options. A small brain structure plays a central role in the many decisions like this we make each day. But it hasn’t been clear how a limited number of neurons in this small part of the brain can support an unlimited number of choices.
Now, studying how macaque monkeys choose between juice drinks, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that some of the neurons in a part of the brain assign value to the options, while other neurons are related to making final choices. All of these neurons can re-map to make different decisions when circumstances change, the web site reports.
“When we choose between an apple and a banana, some neurons assign a value to the apple, some neurons assign a value to the banana, and other neurons represent the choice outcome,” says Camillo Padoa-Schioppa, PhD, an associate professor of neuroscience and the study’s senior investigator. “Taken together, these different groups of cells seem to form a neural circuit that generates economic decisions.”
In this study, the researchers examined how this neural circuit reorganizes when decisions are made in different circumstances.
In each tasting session, the macaques chose between two different drinks. A total of a dozen different juices was used. Subsequently, they chose between two other juice drinks.
“An animal first might choose between grape juice and apple juice, and some neurons would represent the value of the grape juice,” says first author Jue Xie, a graduate student in Padoa-Schioppa’s lab. “Later, the animal might choose between kiwi punch and peach juice, and the same neurons that had assigned a value to the grape juice subsequently would assign a value to the kiwi punch. This means there is no such thing as a grape juice cell or an apple juice cell. The neurons become associated with one of the options available at any given time.”
Think about the choices we make on a given day — between foods, whether to watch TV or read a book, or between different investments in our retirement funds. Some cells in this part of the brain assign values to individual options, and other cells represent the choice outcome.
Stay with me here. "Neurons that assign the value to individual options are called offer-value cells," adds Padoa-Schioppa, who also is an associate professor of economics and of biomedical engineering. "But if we are choosing between different foods, an offer-value cell might represent the value of roasted chicken, whereas if we are choosing between different financial investments, the same offer-value cell might represent the value of a mutual fund.”
She notes that, if you look at individual cells, neurons are very flexible. “However, if we consider the whole network, the decision circuit is remarkably stable. This combination of circuit stability and neuronal flexibility makes it possible for the same brain region to generate decisions between any two goods," she says.”
Tough decisions, maybe. But a small part of your brain is very instrumental in making them, according to newswise.com.
Choosing what shirt to buy, what to order for lunch or whether to go with the hearty red wine or the lighter white all involve assigning values to the options. A small brain structure plays a central role in the many decisions like this we make each day. But it hasn’t been clear how a limited number of neurons in this small part of the brain can support an unlimited number of choices.
Now, studying how macaque monkeys choose between juice drinks, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that some of the neurons in a part of the brain assign value to the options, while other neurons are related to making final choices. All of these neurons can re-map to make different decisions when circumstances change, the web site reports.
“When we choose between an apple and a banana, some neurons assign a value to the apple, some neurons assign a value to the banana, and other neurons represent the choice outcome,” says Camillo Padoa-Schioppa, PhD, an associate professor of neuroscience and the study’s senior investigator. “Taken together, these different groups of cells seem to form a neural circuit that generates economic decisions.”
In this study, the researchers examined how this neural circuit reorganizes when decisions are made in different circumstances.
In each tasting session, the macaques chose between two different drinks. A total of a dozen different juices was used. Subsequently, they chose between two other juice drinks.
“An animal first might choose between grape juice and apple juice, and some neurons would represent the value of the grape juice,” says first author Jue Xie, a graduate student in Padoa-Schioppa’s lab. “Later, the animal might choose between kiwi punch and peach juice, and the same neurons that had assigned a value to the grape juice subsequently would assign a value to the kiwi punch. This means there is no such thing as a grape juice cell or an apple juice cell. The neurons become associated with one of the options available at any given time.”
Think about the choices we make on a given day — between foods, whether to watch TV or read a book, or between different investments in our retirement funds. Some cells in this part of the brain assign values to individual options, and other cells represent the choice outcome.
Stay with me here. "Neurons that assign the value to individual options are called offer-value cells," adds Padoa-Schioppa, who also is an associate professor of economics and of biomedical engineering. "But if we are choosing between different foods, an offer-value cell might represent the value of roasted chicken, whereas if we are choosing between different financial investments, the same offer-value cell might represent the value of a mutual fund.”
She notes that, if you look at individual cells, neurons are very flexible. “However, if we consider the whole network, the decision circuit is remarkably stable. This combination of circuit stability and neuronal flexibility makes it possible for the same brain region to generate decisions between any two goods," she says.”
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