A NEURAL APPROACH TO DECISION MAKING UNDER UNCERTAINTY AND RISK

Abstract

The human brain is illustrated as the most complex object in the universe. From solving mathematics problems to choosing between coffee or tea at breakfast, the human brain makes thousands of decisions on a daily basis mostly under uncertainty, ambiguity or risk. Within its complex structure decision making processes play a significant role while activating many cortices, including but not limited to the orbital frontal cortex and the amygdala. On the other hand, decision making is similarly a complicated concept where uncertainty and risk are differentiated both theoretically in decision theory and anatomically in the human brain. Decisions are evaluated in the orbital frontal cortex and the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex with either value-based thinking or heuristic thinking. By uniting decision theory and the neural basis of decision making, we have learned how the human brain evaluates the available options and the possible outcomes and consequently reacts to the stimuli.

Keywords

• decision making,uncertainty,risk,orbital frontal cortex,amygdala

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