Decisions, Uncertainty, and the Brain: The Science of Neuroeconomics / Edition 1

by Paul W. Glimcher

Overview

In this provocative book, Paul Glimcher argues that economic theory may provide an alternative to the classical Cartesian model of the brain and behavior. Glimcher argues that Cartesian dualism operates from the false premise that the reflex is able to describe behavior in the real world that animals inhabit. A mathematically rich cognitive theory, he claims, could solve the most difficult problems that any environment could present, eliminating the need for dualism by eliminating the need for a reflex theory. Such a mathematically rigorous description of the neural processes that connect sensation and action, he explains, will have its roots in microeconomic theory. Economic theory allows physiologists to define both the optimal course of action that an animal might select and a mathematical route by which that optimal solution can be derived. Glimcher outlines what an economics-based cognitive model might look like and how one would begin to test it empirically. Along the way, he presents a fascinating history of neuroscience. He also discusses related questions about determinism, free will, and the stochastic nature of complex behavior.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262572279
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	09/17/2004
Series:	A Bradford Book
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	5.88(w) x 8.96(h) x 0.65(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Paul W. Glimcher is Associate Professor of Neural Science and Psychology at the Center for Neural Science, New York University.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	xiii
	Further Reading	xv
	Economics	xv
	Behavioral Ecology	xv
	Preface	xvii
I	Historical Approaches	1
1	Rene Descartes and the Birth of Neuroscience	3
	Vaucanson's Duck	3
	Rene Descartes	5
	Understanding the Ancients	9
	The Renaissance	16
	Francis Bacon	19
	William Harvey	22
	Descartes's Synthesis	27
2	Inventing the Reflex	33
	Enlightenment Views of Determinism in the Physical and Biological World	33
	Determinism in Geometrical Mathematics and Geometrical Physics	33
	Determinism and Behavior	36
	Nondeterministic Behavior	38
	The Birth of Analytic Mathematics: The End of Geometric World Models	40
	Beyond Clockworks: Analytic Models of the Determinate Brain	44
	Vaucanson's Duck in a Deterministic, but Analytic, World	51
3	Charles Sherrington and the Propositional Logic of Reflexes	55
	Testing the Limits of Determinate Analytic Mathematics	55
	Charles Scott Sherrington: The Confluence of Logic and Physiology	60
	Sherrington's System: The Logic of the Nervous System	63
	Dualism	68
	The Godel Theorem: Finding the Limits of Determinate Mathematics	72
	Alan Turing and Computability	73
4	Finding the Limits of the Sherringtonian Paradigm	77
	Reflexes: Empirical Fact, Philosophical Paradigm, or Both?	78
	The Reflex Model Is Not Adequate to Account for All Determinate Behavior. Additional Mechanisms Are Required	80
	Sherrington's Cat	80
	T. Graham Brown and Internal Rhythms	82
	Erik Von Holtz: Adding to Reflex Theory	87
	Reflexes Are Not, as Sherrington Argued, the Organizational Element for Behavior. Behavior May Be Structured Hierarchically	95
	Paul Weiss	95
	Nickolai Bernstein	104
	Beyond Reflexes	108
5	Neurobiology Today: Beyond Reflexology?	111
	NetTalk, a Neural Network That Reads Aloud	113
	Classical Networks	113
	The NetTalk System	117
	Deciding Where to Look	122
6	Global Computation: An Alternative to Sherrington?	131
	David Marr	133
	Perceptrons and Computation	135
	Marr's Approach	137
	Vision	139
	Unresolved Problems with Marr's Approach	143
7	Modularity and Evolution	145
	Modules	146
	Psychological Modules	149
	Neurobiological Modules	150
	Evolution	151
	Gould and Lewontin	153
	The Need for an Optimal Benchmark: Defining the Evolutionary Goals of Neural Computation	154
	Achieving a Defined Goal: Phototransduction	156
	Convergent Evolution: Cichlid Fishes	159
	Generalizing to Complex Systems?	164
	Marr, Evolution, and Modules: The Road Ahead	166
II	Neuroeconomics	169
8	Defining the Goal: Extending Marr's Approach	171
	The Goal of Behavior	171
	Replacing Minimal Complexity: Inclusive Fitness	172
	Replacing Determinate Models: Probability Theory	175
	Uncertainty, Value, and Economics	177
	The Birth of Probability Theory	178
	Pascal's Idea: Combining Value and Probability	187
	A Critical Advance in Valuation: Bernoulli	189
	A Critical Advance in Probability: Bayes and Laplace	192
	Thomas Bayes	193
	Pierre-Simon Laplace	197
	Valuation, Probability, and Decision: Foundations of Modern Economic Theory	199
	Evolving Optimal Solutions or Optimal Brains?	200
	Summary	202
9	Evolution, Probability, and Economics	205
	Behavioral Ecology as a Theoretical Approach	206
	Foraging Theory	208
	The Prey Model	211
	Empirical Tests of Foraging Economics	217
	Conclusions from Testing the Prey Model	221
	Summary	222
10	Probability, Valuation, and Neural Circuits: A Case Study	225
	An Overview of Visual-Saccadic Processing	226
	Visual Processing in the Primate Brain	226
	Eye Movements and the Primate Brain	229
	Linking Vision and Saccades	231
	The Visual-Saccadic Function of Parietal Cortex	233
	The Command Hypothesis	234
	Attentional Enhancement	237
	Attention Versus Intention	242
	Resolving the Attention-Intention Debate?	250
	The Cued Saccade and Distributed Cue Experiment	251
	An Alternative Approach: Goals, Probability, and Valuation	255
	Encoding Probability	256
	Encoding Valuation	261
	Variables That Guide Choice Behavior	263
	Summary	266
	Falling into the Dualist Trap	268
11	Irreducible Uncertainty and the Theory of Games	271
	Irreducible Uncertainty in a Populated World	273
	Billiard Balls	273
	Flipping a Laplacian Coin	275
	The Theory of Games	276
	An Introduction to Game Theory	278
	Opponent Actions and Expected Utility	281
	John Nash and Modern Game Theory	282
	Limitations of the Equilibrium Approach	287
	Biology and the Theory of Games	288
	The Hawk-Dove Game	289
	Can Animals Really Produce Unpredictable Behaviors?	293
	Applying Game Theory to Animal Behavior	294
	Summary	297
12	Games and the Brain	299
	Volition, Free Will, and Mathematical Games	299
	Playing the Inspection Game	300
	Theory	301
	Behavior	304
	Summary	309
	Shifting to a Single Player	309
	Game-Playing Monkeys	311
	The Physiology of a Complex Behavior	313
	Summary	317
13	Putting It All Together I. Behavior and Physiology	319
	The Neuroeconomic Program	319
	Using Neuroeconomics	321
	Neuroeconomic Examples	322
Example 1	Visual Attention	323
Example 2	Evaluating Visual Motion	328
Example 3	Learning Prior Probabilities	330
Example 4	Learning About Values	332
	Limits of the Theory: Will It Be Good Enough?	334
	Summary	336
14	Putting It All Together II. Philosophical Implications	337
	Classical Dualism and Physiological Monism	337
	Alternatives to Classical Dualism and Physiological Monism	338
	Free Will	340
	Consciousness	342
	Finis	344
	References	347
	Index	355

What People are Saying About This

Kevin A. McCabe

Glimcher's seminal book is a must-read in the emerging field of neuroeconomics. His analysis of the biological foundations of economic behavior makes for exciting reading for economists and neuroscientists alike, who will be fascinated by his insightful research connecting neuronal firing and economic decision making.

Alex Kacelnik

Glimcher has achieved an extraordinary synthesis of perspectives that have remained isolated for far too long. He views the brain as a system designed to maximise neither pleasure nor social or economic success, but biological fitness instead. He goes on to show why this matters in fields as disparate as psychology, economics and his own field of neurobiology. This is an impressive and highly readable journey through vast areas of scientific and philosophical knowledge.

Michael S. Gazzaniga

Glimcher does extraordinary neuroscience and relates it to the most fundamental of all questions: how the brain makes decisions. His use of game theory to characterize decision making in both humans and monkeys under conditions of strategic conflict is unique. What could be more important than studying the neurobiological basis of volitional choice in earnest? The implications and applications of his work are singular.

Endorsement

Glimcher does extraordinary neuroscience and relates it to the most fundamental of all questions: how the brain makes decisions. His use of game theory to characterize decision making in both humans and monkeys under conditions of strategic conflict is unique. What could be more important than studying the neurobiological basis of volitional choice in earnest? The implications and applications of his work are singular.

—Michael S. Gazzaniga, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Dartmouth College

From the Publisher

Glimcher has achieved an extraordinary synthesis of perspectives that have remained isolated for far too long. He views the brain as a system designed to maximise neither pleasure nor social or economic success, but biological fitness instead. He goes on to show why this matters in fields as disparate as psychology, economics and his own field of neurobiology. This is an impressive and highly readable journey through vast areas of scientific and philosophical knowledge.

—Alex Kacelnik, Professor of Behavioural Ecology, Oxford University

Glimcher's seminal book is a must-read in the emerging field of neuroeconomics. His analysis of the biological foundations of economic behavior makes for exciting reading for economists and neuroscientists alike, who will be fascinated by his insightful research connecting neuronal firing and economic decision making.

—Kevin A. McCabe , Professor of Economics and Law, and Director of the Neuroeconomics Laboratory at the Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science, George Mason University

Glimcher does extraordinary neuroscience and relates it to the most fundamental of all questions: how the brain makes decisions. His use of game theory to characterize decision making in both humans and monkeys under conditions of strategic conflict is unique. What could be more important than studying the neurobiological basis of volitional choice in earnest? The implications and applications of his work are singular.

—Michael S. Gazzaniga, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Dartmouth College

Editorial Reviews

Decisions, Uncertainty, and the Brain is a worthwhile book.—William H. Redmond, Journal of Economic Issues—

The book is an absorbing introduction to the emerging field of neuroeconomics, which combines economic concepts with the study of brains and behavior in humans and animals. Decisions, Uncertainty, and the Brain makes a strong case that the marriage of neuroscience's history and of philosophical implications of neuroeconomics.

—Kenneth Silber, Tech Central Station—

This book will surely ignite discussion and soul searching among serious neuroscientists...

—P. Read, Montague Nature—

From the Publisher

This book will surely ignite discussion and soul searching among serious neuroscientists...

—P. Read, Montague Nature

Reviews

This book will surely ignite discussion and soul searching among serious neuroscientists...

P. Read

The book is an absorbing introduction to the emerging field of neuroeconomics, which combines economic concepts with the study of brains and behavior in humans and animals. Decisions, Uncertainty, and the Brain makes a strong case that the marriage of neuroscience's history and of philosophical implications of neuroeconomics.

Kenneth Silber

Decisions, Uncertainty, and the Brain is a worthwhile book.

William H. Redmond