decisions

von's post yesterday reminded me a little of a talk i attended recently by brian knutson, who studies neuroeconomics and how decision-making is instantiated in the brain. through various studies over the last decade or so, we've shown pretty convincingly that there are certain areas in the reward pathway and frontal cortex that give us the power to predict decisions a person will make above and beyond their stated preferences. it also seems that the more difficult the decision is, the more incremental validity the neural information gives us. in other words, in cases where we have trouble a lot of making up our minds, it may be that having direct access to neuronal activity in these regions of interest may tell us what we "really" prefer (i.e. laceration, or broken phone). so, von, for $500 and a trip to philly, you can have your answer. i'll even throw in a couple drinks of scotch.