The ability to make appropriate choices is critical for survival. Successful decision making requires the integration of sensory information, motivational states and potential outcomes to select the best action. Animals at all levels of the phylogenetic tree make decisions, such as those about where to forage for food or which mate to choose, but the complexity of these decisions varies widely between pigeons and people. We are often most fascinated by the kinds of decisions that we think make us uniquely human—those requiring the ability to reason abstractly and use language to frame and execute our choices. However, it is clear that even with our higher faculties, we are still the product of evolution, and instinctual, sometimes irrational, decisions are just as much a hallmark of our choice behavior. In this issue, a special focus containing four reviews explores recent advances in this important field.
A number of streams of research, including behavioral psychology, cognitive neuroscience and economics, have traditionally been concerned with the mechanisms underlying choice behavior. Each of these fields has focused on particular areas of interest, working with animals or humans, financial decisions or more primary needs. However, recent work combining theory and protocols that cross these disciplinary boundaries has led to a broader understanding of the neural circuitry underlying decision making.
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