Sarah RudorfNeuronale Grundlagen menschlicher Entscheidungsprozesse

About this book deutschenglish

Decision making is central to human cognition and behavior. Every day we face decisions that can have an impact on ourselves or others. Making optimal decisions generally incorporates our preferences and our experiences, as well as the current context. This book describes how the human brain integrates all this information and forms a decision. It reviews theories and methods from psychology, economics and neuroscience, and describes an interdisciplinary, neuroeconomic model of decision making.

In addition to the neurobiological mechanisms of decision making, this book explains the basics of functional and diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging. Building on this, the book describes five empirical studies that use combinations of psychological experimental paradigms and modern brain imaging to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying specific decision processes. The studies focus on the representation of uncertainty and individual risk preferences, the context-dependent valuation of decision alternatives as well as the learning from risky decisions. Among others, one study suggests that financial decisions can be biased by a brain physiological state that increases optimism towards risky investments.

The studies reported in this book shed light on a number of cognitive processes and contribute to a better understanding of the neurobiology of decision making.