CENTER OF EXCELLENCE IN THE NEUROSCIENCE OF DECISION MAKING AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
Abstract
Our ability to make decisions is crucial to all aspects of our existence. Decision making involves a myriad of processes that include integrating evidence from the world, combining it with our prior knowledge and weighing the costs of our actions. For decades, researchers have been investigating the neural basis of decision making and its constituent processes, with research typically segregated into animal and human studies. Animal models have advantages in that they offer a rich set of methods and techniques for precisely measuring and perturbing neural activity and brain state, however they are limited in terms of the complexity of the behavioral task, the inability to use language to probe the subject and the difficulty in assessing the transition of a novice to an expert. Human neuroscience studies have, until very recently, taken a reductionist view by creating tasks that are highly simplified and made analogous to what is done with animal models, most often using less invasive methods and techniques to measure and perturb decision making. However, it is unclear how these relatively simple decision making tasks extrapolate to explain real-world decision making in humans. The primary goal of this Center of Excellence (COE) at Columbia University is to use a multimodal, multiscale and multidisciplinary approach to develop a better understanding of the how the neuroscience of decision making for simple decisions in humans and animals relates to what is happening in ours brain when we make decisions in real-world, naturalistic contexts. The specific objectives of our COE reflect our innovative methodology that combines open-loop measurements, directed perturbations and closed-loop experimental techniques, together with computational modeling, to make inferences about goal directed tasks that require multiple, interdependent decisions which are made under stress, fatigue and time constraints.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Apr 20, 2023
- Source ID
- FA95502210337
Entities
People
- Paul Sajda
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York
- United States Air Force