The Field of Decision Neuroscience Is Constantly Expanding

Determining how our brains function – and how neurons and cortical regions interact – while we are making decisions has been a long-term goal for neuroscientists. Currently, thanks to advanced imaging technologies, experts are making constant and considerable progress.

One of the most interesting directions of research is dividing the complex computer that is the human brain into subdivisions, and analyzing them individually. All of these parts are integrated with each other through complex links, produced by billions of neurons and trillion of synaptic connections.

Understanding the boundaries of each neural component involved in the decision-making progress will allow investigators to better assess how each of them interacts with the other. This may in turn lead to a more thorough understanding of how decisions are made.

Ultimately, the goal of such investigations is to develop novel therapies against conditions such as depression and schizophrenia, among many other mental disorders. Experts in the field of decision neuroscience recently met at a conference to discuss their progress so far.

“For many psychiatric disorders, patients that are symptomatic are frequently making poor decisions about numerous things throughout the day, such as how they handle their anxiety and other emotional states,” C. Daniel Salzman, MD, PhD, explains.

The investigator holds appointments with the Columbia University School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, and the Kavli Institute for Brain Science, PsychCentral reports.

“If you’ve ever had a friend or family member with depression, you can see they are not making decisions the way they normally do,” he goes on to say, adding that decision neuroscience is contributing a great deal to deepening our understanding of these phenomena.

“So there clearly has to be dysfunction in the neurocircuits of psychiatric patients affecting their decisions, and we need to understand this better in order to come up with better treatments for mental disorders,” Salzman believes.

“Our new knowledge about the cellular and circuit mechanisms of working memory and decision processes in the brain has already had a significant impact on clinical studies of mental illness,” Xiao-Jing Wang, PhD, adds.

The investigator holds an appointment with the Yale University School of Medicine Department of Neurobiology, Physics and Psychology. He is also the director of the Swartz Program in Theoretical Neurobiology, and a member of the Kavli Institute of Neuroscience.