Neuroscience of Decision Making

The intersection between the fields of behavioral decision research and neuroscience has proved to be fertile ground for interdisciplinary research. Whereas the former is rich in formalized models of choice, the latter is rife with techniques for testing behavioral models at the brain level. As a result, there has been the rapid emergence of progressively more sophisticated biological models of choice, geared toward the development of ever more complete mechanistic models of behavior.
This volume provides a coherent framework for distilling some of the key themes that have emerged as a function of this research program, and highlights what we have learned about judgment and decision making as a result. Although topics that are theoretically relevant to judgment and decision making researchers are addressed, the book also ventures somewhat beyond the traditional boundaries of this area to tackle themes that would of interest to a greater community of scholars.
Neuroscience of Decision Making provides contemporary and essential reading for researchers and students of cognitive psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, and economics.

Oshin Vartanian obtained his Ph.D. in experimental psychology at the University of Maine, followed by postdoctoral fellowships in cognitive neuroscience at York University and DRDC Toronto, where he is currently a Defence Scientist. He is the recipient of the Daniel E. Berlyne Award from the American Psychological Association’s Division 10 for outstanding research by a junior researcher, and holds an Adjunct Assistant Professor position in the Department of Psychology at the University of Toronto—Scarborough.
David R. Mandel is an adjunct professor of psychology at University of Toronto and a senior defence scientist at DRDC Toronto, where he heads the Thinking, Risk, and Intelligence Group. His areas of research interest include thinking and reasoning, judgment and decision making, and the application of behavioural science to issues in realm of the defence and security. He is the lead editor of The Psychology of Counterfactual Thinking published by Routledge/Taylor & Francis.

O. Vartanian, D.R. Mandel, Introduction. Part 1. Theoretical Models. M. Sigman, S. Dehaene, Why Does it Take Time to Make a Decision? The Role of a Global Workspace in Simple Decision Making. D.R. Mandel, O.Vartanian, Frames, Brains, and Content Domains: Neural and Behavioral Effects of Descriptive Context on Preferential Choice. Part 2. Risk and Uncertainty. A. Bechara, Human Emotions in Decision Making: Are they Useful or Disruptive? A.J. Yu, Uncertainty and Neuromodulation: Focus on Acetylcholine and Sustained Attention. W. De Neys, V. Goel, Heuristics and Biases in the Brain: Dual Neural Pathways for Decision Making. Part 3. Reward and Loss. M.R. Delgado, E. Tricomi, Reward Processing and Decision Making in the Human Striatum. J.P. O’Doherty, Neural Mechanisms Underlying Reward and Punishment Learning in the Human Brain: Insights from fMRI. D.A. Pizzagalli, D.G. Dillon, R. Bogdan, A.J. Holmes, Reward and Punishment Processing in the Human Brain: Clues from Affective Neuroscience and Implications for Depression Research. Part 4. Cooperation and Trust. A.G. Sanfey, J.K. Rilling, Neural Bases of Social Decision Making. D. Houser, R. Kurzban, E. Xiao, Social and Biological Evidence on Motives for Punishment. Part 5. Goal-directed Decision Making. K. Christoff, A. Gordon, R. Smith, The Role of Spontaneous Thought in Human Cognition. J. Moll, J. Grafman, Well, What Do You Want To Do? A Cognitive Neuroscience View of Plan Decision Making. O. Vartanian, Decision Junctures in the Creative Process.