Decision-making tagged posts

In pausing to think before making an important decision, we may imagine the potential outcomes of different choices we could make. While this “mental simulation” is central to how we plan and make decisions in everyday life, how the brain works to accomplish this is not well understood.

An international team of scientists has now uncovered neural mechanisms used in planning. Its results, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, suggest that an interplay between the brain’s prefrontal cortex and hippocampus allows us to imagine future outcomes in order to guide our decisions.

“The prefrontal cortex acts as a ‘simulator,’ mentally testing out possible actions using a cognitive map stored in the hippocampus,” explains Marcelo Mattar, an as...

Neuroscientists and psychologists have been trying for decades to better understand how humans make decisions, in the hope to devise more effective interventions to promote healthy and beneficial lifestyle choices. Two brain regions that have been linked to decision-making are the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC).

Researchers at University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), have been conducting extensive research focusing on these two areas of the brain and exploring their involvement in decision-making...

The significance of the dorsomedial PFC came as a surprise because of its relative neglect in the decision neuroscience literature. Credit: © raresb / Fotolia

If you’re pondering whether to buy a Galaxy smartphone or iPhone this holiday season, the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (PFC) might ultimately determine your choice. Results of a new study suggest that this region of the brain plays a critical role in making choices.

“A big question is how and where value information is represented in the brain, and what goes into that representation,” says Dr. Fellows. “Our research confirmed what savvy marketers already know: the longer you look at one of two objects, the more likely you’ll choose that object even if you initially valued the other one more...

Beetroot juice enhances performance

Resesarch adds further weight to the case for beetroot juice as a superfood for elite and amateur sports players and athletes. Previously, the team at Exeter has regular beetroot juice drinks can help people to exercise for 16% longer. Drinking high nitrate beetroot juice improves both sprint performance and decision-making during prolonged intermittent exercise such as rugby and football. In the latest study,16 male team sport players received 140ml of Beet It Sport, high nitrate beetroot juice for seven days.

On day 7, the sportsmen, who were all members of rugby, hockey or football teams, completed an intermittent sprint test which consisted of two 40 minute sessions of repeated 2 minute blocks...