In the past decade, decision neuroscience and neuroeconomics have developed many new insights in the study of decision making. This review provides an overarching update on how the field has advanced in this time period. Although our initial review a decade ago outlined several theoretical, conceptual, methodological, empirical, and practical challenges, there has only been limited progress in resolving these challenges. We summarize significant trends in decision neuroscience through the lens of the challenges outlined for the field and review examples where the field has had significant, direct, and applicable impacts across economics and psychology. First, we review progress on topics including reward learning, explore-exploit decisions, risk and ambiguity, intertemporal choice, and valuation. Next, we assess the impacts of emotion, social rewards, and social context on decision making. Then, we follow up with how individual differences impact choices and new exciting developments in the prediction and neuroforecasting of future decisions. Finally, we consider how trends in decision-neuroscience research reflect progress toward resolving past challenges, discuss new and exciting applications of recent research, and identify new challenges for the field.
This report describes an ongoing R03 grant that explores the links between trait reward sensitivity, substance use, and neural responses to social and nonsocial reward. Although previous research has shown that trait reward sensitivity and neural responses to reward are linked to substance use, whether this relationship is impacted by how people process social stimuli remains unclear. We are investigating these questions via a neuroimaging study with college-aged participants, using individual difference measures that examine the relation between substance use, social context, and trait reward sensitivity with tasks that measure reward anticipation, strategic behavior, social reward consumption, and the influence of social context on reward processing. We predict that substance use will be tied to distinct patterns of striatal dysfunction. Specifically, reward hyposensitive individuals will exhibit blunted striatal responses to social and non-social reward and enhanced connectivity with the orbitofrontal cortex; in contrast, reward hypersensitive individuals will exhibit enhanced striatal responses to social and non-social reward and blunted connectivity with the orbitofrontal cortex. We also will examine the relation between self-reported reward sensitivity, substance use, and striatal responses to social reward and social context. We predict that individuals reporting the highest levels of substance use will show exaggerated striatal responses to social reward and social context, independent of self-reported reward sensitivity. Examining corticostriatal responses to reward processing will help characterize the relation between reward sensitivity, social context and substance use while providing a foundation for understanding risk factors and isolating neurocognitive mechanisms that may be targeted to increase the efficacy of interventions.
This report describes an ongoing R03 grant that explores the links between trait reward sensitivity, substance use, and neural responses to social and nonsocial reward. Although previous research has shown that trait reward sensitivity and neural responses to reward are linked to substance use, whether this relationship is impacted by how people process social stimuli remains unclear. We are investigating these questions via a neuroimaging study with college-aged participants, using individual difference measures that examine the relation between substance use, social context, and trait reward sensitivity with tasks that measure reward anticipation, strategic behavior, social reward consumption, and the influence of social context on reward processing. We predict that substance use will be tied to distinct patterns of striatal dysfunction. Specifically, reward hyposensitive individuals will exhibit blunted striatal responses to social and non-social reward and enhanced connectivity with the orbitofrontal cortex; in contrast, reward hypersensitive individuals will exhibit enhanced striatal responses to social and non-social reward and blunted connectivity with the orbitofrontal cortex. We also will examine the relation between self-reported reward sensitivity, substance use, and striatal responses to social reward and social context. We predict that individuals reporting the highest levels of substance use will show exaggerated striatal responses to social reward and social context, independent of self-reported reward sensitivity. Examining corticostriatal responses to reward processing will help characterize the relation between reward sensitivity, social context and substance use while providing a foundation for understanding risk factors and isolating neurocognitive mechanisms that may be targeted to increase the efficacy of interventions.
Substance use (SU) has been linked to alterations in reward processing in the ventral striatum (VS). However, less is known about how SU relates to striatal activation and connectivity during social rewards (e.g., positive peer feedback). In this pre-registered study, we hypothesized that SU would be associated with activation and functional connectivity of the VS during receipt of social rewards. Participants (N=44) underwent two fMRI tasks to isolate neural response to social and monetary rewards. The tasks involved choosing between two stimuli: either two purported peers, with the goal of identifying the peer who liked the participant (social); or two doors, with the goal of identifying the door containing a $0.50 prize (monetary). We predicted that VS activation in response to social rewards would be correlated with SU, independent of reward sensitivity (RS); however, an exploratory whole-brain analysis revealed SU was related to activation in the temporoparietal junction instead. Moreover, results showed that aberrant RS blunts the relationship between SU and striatal activation during receipt of rewards, regardless of their domain. Psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analysis demonstrated that SU was associated with decreased connectivity between the VS and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex for social rewards, independent of RS. Exploratory analyses further revealed that RS is associated with increased connectivity between the VS and ventromedial prefrontal cortex during social rewards. Taken together, these findings shed light on the relationships between potential risk factors for developing substance use disorder.
In the past decade, decision neuroscience and its subfield of neuroeconomics have developed many new insights in the study of decision making. This review provides a comprehensive update on how the field has advanced in this time. Although our initial review a decade ago outlined several theoretical, conceptual, methodological, empirical, and practical challenges, there has only been limited progress in resolving these challenges. We summarize significant trends in decision neuroscience through the lens of the challenges outlined for the field and review examples where the field has had significant, direct, and applicable impacts across psychology, neuroscience, and economics. We will first review progress in basic value processes involved in reward learning, explore-exploit decisions, risk and uncertainty, intertemporal choice, and valuation. Next, we assess the impacts of emotion, social rewards, and social context on decision making. Then, we follow up with how individual differences impact choice, and exciting developments in prediction and neuroforecasting of future decisions. Finally, we will consider overall progress in the field of decision neuroscience in reconciling past challenges, identifying new challenges, and recent exciting applications of this research.
John Cochrane, a leading economist, has consistently expressed a skeptical view toward behavioral economics and libertarian-paternalism. Specifically, he has consistently voiced his disagreement with the premise of “protecting” people from their own choices. However, in his hobby of piloting gliders, he has strongly argued that pilots will make behavioral errors. Indeed, he notes that pilots can be tempted to make unsafe decisions and has argued for specific rules to help prevent pilot error. In this article, we examine this contradiction. In doing so, it provides an interesting case study of how our beliefs in one system can be quite different in another. JEL Classifications: B31, D91, G40
In this experiment, we examined how trait Emotional Intelligence (EI) related tobehavior in social bargaining tasks. EI is theoretically related to both higher trait levels of empathy and better emotional regulation. More empathetic people may act more generously toward a bargaining partner. Subjects with better emotional regulation may be better at controlling their emotions in bargaining situations, which may help them make more self-interested choices. We used the Ultimatum and Dictator games to measure whether higher EI individuals behaved more generously or selfishly. These games are played between two people, where one person receives an endowment from the experimenter and decides how much to share with a recipient. The Ultimatum Game allows the recipient to reject offers, which forces the proposer to give his money back to the experimenter. In the Dictator Game, the recipient is unable to reject the proposer's offer. To maximize earnings, the most strategic thing to do in the Ultimatum Game is to make offers closer to even splits to avoid getting rejected by one's partner and to keep the whole endowment in the Dictator Game where there is no threat of retribution. Conversely, if a subject is motivated by fairness, they would make fair offers in both games. We found that subjects with higher EI acted strategically by being fair in the Ultimatum Game and selfish in the Dictator Game. These findings suggest that EI predicts more self interested behavior in bargaining situations.
Awareness and management of the risk of failing to encounter lift is fundamental to thermal soaring. When the weather changes or a thermal is missed the pilot may be exposed to a greater risk of landing out. In these situations the pilot may need to alter strategies in order to minimize risk exposure at the expense of speed, often referred to as "gear shifting." In this work, we explore several models to explain why small changes in the environment can cause large changes in risk exposure, requiring this shifting. We also examine several flight strategies in simulation to define the relative risk and reward for adopting various levels of risk tolerance and for failing to "shift gears" when the risk of landing out increases.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
334 Leonard St
Brooklyn, NY 11211
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.