NeuroNetwork 3

Neuroeconomics has its origin in events following the neoclassical revolution and the advent of cognitive neuroscience. It seeks to model the neural bases of how individuals weight rewards, make decisions, and resulting social interactions, in contrast to the assumptions of classical economics. The aim of the Neuronetwork "Neuroökonomische Ansätze zur Beschreibung verhaltensverstärkender Information", which was funded from Jan 01, 2009 until Jun 30, 2012, was to identify and classify the size of situational influences on decision making and decision processes, which are affected by punishments and rewards and deviates from the modeling techniques of the utility maximizer. This was done in three projects using a combination of behavioral experiments and investigations of neural signals on both humans and nonhuman primates. It was shown that the decisions of individuals could alter the perception of sensory stimuli. Choice behavior influences the processing of auditory stimuli in the auditory cortex and that this is under the control of the neuromodulator dopamine. In addition, it was shown how a variety of risk situations in which there is a higher expectation of either gains or losses affect choice behavior and that this occurs under the control of various cortical regions, including the anterior cingulate cortex. Finally, the stability of decisions in dictator games was investigated in situations in which more fair or more selfish behavior was required.