Abstract
In this review, I briefly summarize current neurobiological studies of decision-making that bear on two general themes. The first focuses on the nature of neural representation and dynamics in a decision circuit. Experimental and computational results suggest that ramping-to-threshold in the temporal domain and trajectory of population activity in the state space represent a duality of perspectives on a decision process. Moreover, a decision circuit can display several different dynamical regimes, such as the ramping mode and the jumping mode with distinct defining properties. The second is concerned with the relationship between biologically-based mechanistic models and normative-type models. A fruitful interplay between experiments and these models at different levels of abstraction have enabled investigators to pose increasingly refined questions and gain new insights into the neural basis of decision-making. In particular, recent work on multi-alternative decisions suggests that deviations from rational models of choice behavior can be explained by established neural mechanisms.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1039-1046 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Current Opinion in Neurobiology |
Volume | 22 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 1 2012 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Neuroscience