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my research focuses on how the brain
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makes decisions and we study
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decision-making in a number of contexts
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under conditions of uncertainty and risk
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when the world is complicated by the
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behavior of others and we try to
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understand what mechanisms in the brain
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actually drive us to make the decisions
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that we do to make the choices we make
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when we make a decision say you choose
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to buy a stock or sell it short or to
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eat a doughnut instead of an apple why
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do you make that decision that's a key
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question for us and we approach that
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question using a number of different
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techniques one way we do this is to
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study the behavior of people making
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choices and to study what happens in
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their brains when they make those
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choices we also compare these choices to
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those of animals when they're making
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very similar kinds of decisions and then
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we can look at what happens in their
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brains when they make these choices and
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what are the fascinating takeaways from
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our research is that people and animals
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tend to make very similar kinds of
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decisions when they are in similar kinds
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of contexts and moreover their brains
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seem to make these decisions using a
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similar set of mechanisms so what this
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means is that we can infer that much of
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our own behavior the choices we make
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even in a very complex situation such as
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a market are driven by forces that have
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all the long time ago to solve the kinds
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of problems that animals need to solve
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such as finding food finding a mate
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making friends and allies that will help
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to solve the problems that they need to
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solve
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I think we're all aware that the kinds
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of choices we make are very influenced
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by the people around us and in fact this
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is very true of other animals as well
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and one thing that we have learned from
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studying the choices that animals make
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and the choices that people make and
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what happens in their brains when they
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make these choices that they're very
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specific highly specialized mechanisms
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that detect the presence of other
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individuals identify who they are
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evaluate their importance to us and
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allow us to learn from their behavior
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more recently we've identified a very
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specific set of brain cells that
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actually responds when another
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individual feels a reward what's a
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really interesting and important
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potential practical application of this
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discovery is that we might find ways
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either behaviorally or pharmacologically
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or using other means to activate these
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cells and if we did so we might be able
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to promote charitable giving donation to
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public goods and other kinds of
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pro-social behaviors and this could be a
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very important and practical way of
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enhancing the welfare of society
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we're now building on the work that
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we've done looking at the brain
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mechanisms that respond to our social
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environment we're now looking at those
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processes in the brain that allow us to
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learn from the experiences of other
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individuals to use that information to
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guide our choices and how that
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information might be used to behave
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strategically with regard to another
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individual so when do we cooperate when
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do we defect when do we deceive others
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how can we understand these how this
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happens in the brain and how can we
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change it if we want to make better
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decisions
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you
