Neuroeconomics: Decision Making and the Brain

by Paul W. Glimcher PhD (Editor)

Overview

In the years since it first published, Neuroeconomics: Decision Making and the Brain has become the standard reference and textbook in the burgeoning field of neuroeconomics. The second edition, a nearly complete revision of this landmark book, will set a new standard. This new edition features five sections designed to serve as both classroom-friendly introductions to each of the major subareas in neuroeconomics, and as advanced synopses of all that has been accomplished in the last two decades in this rapidly expanding academic discipline. The first of these sections provides useful introductions to the disciplines of microeconomics, the psychology of judgment and decision, computational neuroscience, and anthropology for scholars and students seeking interdisciplinary breadth. The second section provides an overview of how human and animal preferences are represented in the mammalian nervous systems. Chapters on risk, time preferences, social preferences, emotion, pharmacology, and common neural currencies—each written by leading experts—lay out the foundations of neuroeconomic thought. The third section contains both overview and in-depth chapters on the fundamentals of reinforcement learning, value learning, and value representation. The fourth section, “The Neural Mechanisms for Choice,” integrates what is known about the decision-making architecture into state-of-the-art models of how we make choices. The final section embeds these mechanisms in a larger social context, showing how these mechanisms function during social decision-making in both humans and animals. The book provides a historically rich exposition in each of its chapters and emphasizes both the accomplishments and the controversies in the field. A clear explanatory style and a single expository voice characterize all chapters, making core issues in economics, psychology, and neuroscience accessible to scholars from all disciplines. The volume is essential reading for anyone interested in neuroeconomics in particular or decision making in general.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780123914699
Publisher:	Elsevier Science
Publication date:	08/13/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	560
File size:	9 MB

About the Author

Paul W. Glimcher, Julius Silver Professor of Neural Science, Economics and Psychology at New York University. Director, Center for Neuroeconomics, NYU. A.B. - Princeton University, Magna cum Laude. Ph.D. -University of Pennsylvania, Neuroscience. Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, The Association for Psychological Science and the McKnight, Whitehall, Klingenstein and McDonnell Foundations. Investigator of the National Eye Institute, The National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the National Institute on Aging. Founding President of the Society for Neuroeconomics. Winner of the Margaret and Herman Sokol Faculty Award in the Sciences, 2003. Winner of NYU’s Distinguished (Lifetime Accomplishment) Teaching Award, 2006. Member of the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives. Publications in Nature, Science, Neuron, Journal of Neurophysiology, American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Games and Economic Behavior, Vision Research, Experimental Brain Research, MIT Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Science and numerous edited volumes. He is the author of: Decisions, Uncertainty and, the Brain: The Science of Neuroeconomics, 2003 from MIT Press. Winner of the American Association of Publishers Medical Sciences Book of the Year, 2003. Neuroeconomics. Decision Making and the Brain, 2009 from Academic Press. Winner of the American Association of Publishers Economics and Social Sciences Book of the Year Awards, 2009. Foundations of Neuroeconomic Analysis, 2011 from Oxford University Press. Neuroeconomics. Decision Making and the Brain 2nd ed. 2013. Professor Glimcher’s work has been covered by the popular press in the Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, The Los Angeles Times, Money Magazine, New Scientist, and on National Public Radio, The BBC, Le Monde, Die Welt, Frankfurter Allgemeine, La Vanguardia, Fox News, and NOVA amongst others.

http://www.neuroeconomics.nyu.edu

http://www.cns.nyu.edu/γlimcher

Table of Contents

Editor in Chief: Paul W. Glimcher, New York UniversityAssociate Editors: Colin Camerer, CalTechErnst Fehr, University of ZurichRuss Poldrak, UCLAWolfram Schultz: Dopamine and DecisionCamillo Padua-Schioppa and John Assad: Coding Reward Value in the Orbitofrontal CortexRuss Poldrak and Craig Fox: Prospect Theory, Decision and RiskBrian Knutson and Maricio Delgado: Neural Representations of ValueElke Weber: Neural Representations of Risk and Risk AversionDavid Laibson: Decisions in Time: Temporal DiscountingGeorge Loewenstein and Jon Cohen: Multiple-Selves Approaches to the Study of DecisionPaul Glimcher: A Generalized Theory of Neural DecisionElizabeth Phelps: Fear, Emotion and DecisionMichael Platt: The Neurobiology of Social Decision in Non-Human PrimatesRead Montague: 2-person games and decisionKevin McCabe and Vernon Smith: Cooperation and Social Decision MakingErnst Fehr: Social Decision making, Trust and Inequity AversionAldo Rustichini and Andrew Caplin: Axiomatic Approaches to NeuroeconomicsColin Camerer: Games and Decision, a Neurocognitive Approach

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

The fully revised second edition of this award-winning title remains the only comprehensive reference on the neurobiology of decision making, edited and authored by the founders of the field

Editorial Reviews

Neuroeconomics is a timely collection of papers by leading researchers from both sides of the border between economics and neuroscience. The papers reflect a high level of focused communication between scholars in fields that until recently studied decision-making at different levels using different methods, with little fruitful interaction. The book should be of interest to anyone who would like to know how a deeper understanding of process can enrich and refine economic theories of decision-making; to anyone who would like to know how economic theory can inform research in neuroscience; or simply to anyone who has ever wondered about the mechanics of how decisions are made in the brain, and what it means about human nature.” —Vince Crawford, Distinguished Professor of Economics, University of California, San Diego, USA “Neuroeconomics: Decision Making and the Brain is a landmark publication in the rapidly expanding field of neuroeconomics. The list of contributors is exceptional. The content is completely up to date and forward looking. For the foreseeable future, this will be the standard reference for newcomers and experienced researchers alike.” —David Laibson, Professor of Economics, Harvard University, USA “Economists pride themselves of rigorous parsimony. By taking the neural correlates of behavior into account, potentially explanatory variables explode. This book shows when digging deeper nonetheless pays for economics, and how to do it well.” —Christoph Engel, Director, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn, Germany “This collection of chapters on neuroeconomics provides an integrated introduction to how brains compute value, make choices, interact socially and collectively create economics. Neuroeconomics is also a fascinating story of how a new paradigm emerged from the collision of two parent disciplines and is continuing to evolve in often surprising directions.” —Terrence Sejnowski, Professor and Director, Computational Neurobiology Laboratory, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, University of California, San Diego, USA “For those onlookers who can't quite accept that neuroscience may provide insight into how we decide what course of action to follow, the contributors to this comprehensive volume offer some very compelling, and very serious experimental and theoretical insights. Highly recommended, and enormously provocative.” —Floyd Bloom, Professor Emeritus, Molecular and Integrative Neuroscience Department, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, USA “Paul Glimcher is one of the founders of and most distinguished contributors to the emerging science of neuroeconomics. He has edited a volume that offers a clear view into the brains of some of the field's most active investigators.” —Alvin E. Roth, George Gund Professor of Economics and Business Administration, Harvard University, USA

From the Publisher

Reviewer: Gary B Kaniuk, PsyD (Cermak Health Services)
Description: This book describes neuroeconomics, a combination of neuroscience and behavioral economics, with the goal of understanding how economic policies influence motivation on a neuropsychological level and, ultimately, behavior. It explores the neural structure of preferences, values, and choices. This is an update of a 2008 edition.
Purpose: The purpose is to reflect the advances in the field, which "has matured at an astonishing rate over the past 5 years." The editors note: "Thanks to the work of hundreds of cutting-edge scholars, we now know quite a lot about how and where decisions are made in the brain, and that is reflected in the structure of this second edition."
Audience: Neuroscientists, economists, public policy makers, and undergraduate/graduate students will benefit greatly from this book. The editors are from New York University and University of Zurich, while the contributors represent an international authorship from Germany, the U.S., France, the U. K., China, and Switzerland.
Features: The book begins with an overview of the history of neuroeconomics, from the 1930s to the present and it considers judgment and decision making through process and psychological models. It also provides an introduction to neuroscientific research, along with an exploration of the behavioral biases of capuchin monkeys. Section 2 describes preferences from both a neuroscientific and behavioral level, which discusses social preferences and how emotion influences preferences. Reinforcement learning is important to the organism, especially in regard to the impact of neurotransmitters such as dopamine. The book also investigates the neural mechanisms underlying choices, in terms of perceptual decision making and value-based decision making. The authors discuss multiple brain systems for learning and controlling behavior including Pavlovian learning and instrumental conditioning. The book ends by discussing strategic choices (behavioral game theory) in humans and social decision making in primates. There are numerous colorful instructional boxes and figures, and an appendix, "Prospect Theory and the Brain," which is an explanation of behavioral and neuroeconomic perspectives on decisions and risk.
Assessment: This is an excellent book, but a fairly technical one, which requires readers to have a solid introduction to the topic. It should be in the libraries of students and professionals interested in neuroeconomics.

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