How are decision alternatives represented in the primate brain? A recent study by Sugrue et
al. sought to answer this question by integrating behavioral, computational and …

To make adaptive decisions, animals must evaluate the costs and benefits of available
options. The nascent field of neuroeconomics has set itself the ambitious goal of …

The ability to choose among options that differ in their rewards and costs (value-based
decision making) has long been a topic of interest for neuroscientists, psychologists, and …

Psychologists and economists have long appreciated the contribution of reward history and
expectation to decision-making. Yet we know little about how specific histories of choice and …

Just over a decade ago, neurobiologists knew almost nothing about the neural mechanisms
of voluntary choice. Today, the basic outlines of the human and monkey systems for making …

Highlights•Data suggest that the brain computes value relative to a dynamic reference.•This
leads to context-sensitive choices, some sensible and some seemingly irrational.•These …

Decisions can be risky or riskless, depending on the outcomes of the choice. Expected utility
theory describes risky choices as a utility maximization process: we choose the option with …

Economic theories of decision making are based on the principle of utility maximization, and
reinforcement-learning theory provides computational algorithms that can be used to …

We review and synthesize recent neurophysiological studies of decision making in humans
and nonhuman primates. From these studies, the basic outline of the neurobiological …

Behavioral economic studies involving limited numbers of choices have provided key
insights into neural decision-making mechanisms. By contrast, animals' foraging choices …