Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Neural computations of decision utility.

Alan G Sanfey1

  • 1Psychology Department, 1503 E University Blvd, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA. asanfey@u.arizona.edu

Trends in Cognitive Sciences
|November 24, 2004
PubMed
Summary

Researchers investigated how primate brains represent decision alternatives using behavioral, computational, and physiological methods. They found that parietal cortex neurons encode the relative value of choices in a dynamic foraging task.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Threat and blame frames in political rhetoric about societal issues lead to neural and political polarization.

Scientific reports·2026
Same author

Large-scale community study reveals information sampling drives fairness decisions.

Communications psychology·2025
Same author

Retrieving past experiences to inform novel decisions through a process of cascading episodic sampling.

Cognitive psychology·2025
Same author

Competing fairness ideals underlie wealth inequality across decision contexts.

Scientific reports·2024
Same author

Computational modeling of social decision-making.

Current opinion in psychology·2024
Same author

Moral decision-making in context: Behavioral and neural processes underlying allocations based on need, merit, and equality.

Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior·2024

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Science
  • Primate Behavior

Background:

  • Understanding how the brain makes decisions is a fundamental question in neuroscience.
  • Previous research has explored value-based decision-making, but the neural representations of alternatives remain incompletely understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the neural mechanisms underlying the representation of decision alternatives in the primate brain.
  • To determine how the brain integrates value and probability to guide choices.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized a combination of behavioral experiments, computational modeling, and physiological recordings (neuronal activity).
  • Monkeys were trained to perform a dynamic foraging task.
  • Analyzed neuronal activity in the parietal cortex during decision-making.

Main Results:

  • Identified specific neuronal encoding of the relative value of decision alternatives in the parietal cortex.
  • Demonstrated a link between neuronal activity, behavioral choices, and the environmental dynamics.
  • Provided evidence for how value and probability information are combined for choice outcomes.

Conclusions:

  • The parietal cortex plays a crucial role in representing the relative value of decision alternatives.
  • This study offers a starting point for understanding the neural computations underlying value-based decision-making.
  • Findings contribute to the broader understanding of how primates make choices in complex environments.

Related Experiment Videos