Research by MSI PI David Redish (professor, Neuroscience) was featured recently on the Office of the Vice President for Research’s Inquiry blog: No Simple Decisions.
The article discusses two recent studies, published in the journals Nature Communications and Science, that investigate factors around decision-making. The Nature Communications study investigated the neural processes affecting those attempting to kick a drug habit. The Science study investigated how “sunk costs” affect how invested we become in a certain decision. MSI PI Angus MacDonald (professor, Psychology) was a co-author on the Science paper.
Both papers can be found on their journals’ websites:
- Nature Communications: Prolonged abstinence from cocaine or morphine disrupts separable valuations during decision conflict
- Science: Sensitivity to “sunk costs” in mice, rats, and humans
Professor Redish uses MSI for studies investigating information processing during complex decisions; the datasets for this research are very large and computationally intensive. Professor MacDonald examines and analyzes fMRI data using MSI to advance understanding of the underlying structure of personality and psychopathology and how this may be represented in the neural signals of the brain.