The world is full of uncertainty. In unpredictable circumstances, can emotions facilitate advantageous decision-making? A neuroscience team, led by Antonio Damasio, explored this question using the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). To the present day, the findings of numerous IGT-related investigations strongly influence clinical and interdisciplinary research, for example, in neuroeconomics and neuromarketing. This special issue examines IGT-based research progress over the past 20 years through literature reviews, clinical examinations, model construction, theoretical integration, and brain imaging technology. Both supportive and opposing viewpoints are provided to frame correlations between rationality, emotion, decision-making, and IGT. Potential future directions for IGT studies are discussed
Risky Decision Making in Psychological Disorders provides readers with a detailed examination of how risky decision making is affected by a wide array of individual psychological disorders. The book starts by providing important background information on the construct of risky decision making, the assessment of risky decision making, and the neuroscience behind such decision making. The Iowa Gambling Task, Balloon Analogue Risk Task, and other behavioral measures are covered, as are topics such as test reliability and the pros and cons of utilizing tasks that have strong practice effects. The book then moves into how risky decision making is affected by specific psychological disorders, such as addictive behaviors, anxiety disorders, mood disorders, schizophrenia, sleep disorders, eating disorders, and more. - Explores how risky decision making is affected by different psychological disorders - Examines risky decision making and ADHD, psychosis, mood/anxiety disorders, and more - Synthesizes the research on risky decision making - Discusses merits/limitations of the Iowa Gambling Task and other behavioral measures - Covers risky decision making and its associations with other executive functions
Landmark text focusing on the development of brain and behavior during infancy, childhood, and adolescence Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience provides an accessible introduction to the main methods, theories, and empirical findings of developmental cognitive neuroscience. The focus is on human development from in utero to early adulthood, but key comparative work is also included. This new edition covers research in clinical/medical populations, educational applications and major advancements in methods and analysis, in particular with increasing longitudinal research focusing on understanding the mechanisms of cognitive development. It also contains a new chapter on global and cross-cultural perspectives outlining how developmental cognitive neuroscience has been applied in different settings and how techniques can be successfully adapted. The text features a variety of student-friendly features such as chapter-end discussion, applications of basic research, and introductions to key experimental methods. An accompanying related resource website for students and educators that includes a test bank of multiple choice questions is also provided. Other sample topics covered in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience include: Biology of change, methods, and populations, from gene to brain, building a brain, and vision, orienting, and attention Perceiving and acting in a world of objects, learning, and long-term memory, language, and prefrontal cortex, working memory, and decision-making Perceiving and acting in the social world, educational neuroscience, interactive specialization, and integrating development cognitive neuroscience Mid-childhood and adolescent development, social cognition and neuroimaging, and broader cognitive neuroscience approaches and theory With expansive yet accessible coverage of the subject, Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience is an ideal resourcefor upper level undergraduate and early postgraduate readers. The text will further appeal to professionals in fields that have adopted developmental cognitive neuroscience approaches, such as education, clinical psychology, pediatric medicine and global health.
The premise of neuroplasticity on enhancing cognitive functioning among healthy as well as cognitively impaired individuals across the lifespan, and the potential of harnessing these processes to prevent cognitive decline attract substantial scientific and public interest. Indeed, the systematic evidence base for cognitive training, video games, physical exercise and other forms of brain stimulation such as entrain brain activity is growing rapidly. This Research Topic (RT) focused on recent research conducted in the field of cognitive and brain plasticity induced by physical activity, different types of cognitive training, including computerized interventions, learning therapy, video games, and combined intervention approaches as well as other forms of brain stimulation that target brain activity, including electroencephalography and neurofeedback. It contains 49 contributions to the topic, including Original Research articles (37), Clinical Trials (2), Reviews (5), Mini Reviews (2), Hypothesis and Theory (1), and Corrections (2).
Since Descartes famously proclaimed, "I think, therefore I am," science has often overlooked emotions as the source of a person’s true being. Even modern neuroscience has tended, until recently, to concentrate on the cognitive aspects of brain function, disregarding emotions. This attitude began to change with the publication of Descartes’ Error in 1995. Antonio Damasio—"one of the world’s leading neurologists" (The New York Times)—challenged traditional ideas about the connection between emotions and rationality. In this wondrously engaging book, Damasio takes the reader on a journey of scientific discovery through a series of case studies, demonstrating what many of us have long suspected: emotions are not a luxury, they are essential to rational thinking and to normal social behavior.
Decisions large and small play a fundamental role in shaping life course trajectories of health and well-being: decisions draw upon an individual's capacity for self-regulation and self-control, their ability to keep long-term goals in mind, and their willingness to place appropriate value on their future well-being. Aging and Decision Making addresses the specific cognitive and affective processes that account for age-related changes in decision making, targeting interventions to compensate for vulnerabilities and leverage strengths in the aging individual. This book focuses on four dominant approaches that characterize the current state of decision-making science and aging - neuroscience, behavioral mechanisms, competence models, and applied perspectives. Underscoring that choice is a ubiquitous component of everyday functioning, Aging and Decision Making examines the implications of how we invest our limited social, temporal, psychological, financial, and physical resources, and lays essential groundwork for the design of decision supportive interventions for adaptive aging that take into account individual capacities and context variables. - Divided into four dominant approaches that characterize the current state of decision-making science and aging neuroscience - Explores the impact of aging on the linkages between cortical structures/functions and the behavioral indices of decision-making - Examines the themes associated with behavioral approaches that attempt integrations of methods, models, and theories of general decision-making with those derived from the study of aging - Details the changes in underlying competencies in later life and the two prevailing themes that have emerged—one, the general individual differences perspective, and two, a more clinical focus
The first comprehensive treatment of active inference, an integrative perspective on brain, cognition, and behavior used across multiple disciplines. Active inference is a way of understanding sentient behavior—a theory that characterizes perception, planning, and action in terms of probabilistic inference. Developed by theoretical neuroscientist Karl Friston over years of groundbreaking research, active inference provides an integrated perspective on brain, cognition, and behavior that is increasingly used across multiple disciplines including neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy. Active inference puts the action into perception. This book offers the first comprehensive treatment of active inference, covering theory, applications, and cognitive domains. Active inference is a “first principles” approach to understanding behavior and the brain, framed in terms of a single imperative to minimize free energy. The book emphasizes the implications of the free energy principle for understanding how the brain works. It first introduces active inference both conceptually and formally, contextualizing it within current theories of cognition. It then provides specific examples of computational models that use active inference to explain such cognitive phenomena as perception, attention, memory, and planning.
Generally considered a social and/or recreational activity, in some cases gambling can become an addictive behavior. Pathological gambling is classified by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) as an impulse control disorder, characterized by failure to resist the impulse to gamble despite severe and devastating personal, family, or vocational consequences. The lifetime prevalence of pathological gambling in the adult population of North America has been estimated to be over 1%. Pathological gambling can also be associated with significantly specific behavioral problems and neuropsychiatric conditions, mainly affecting dopaminergic reward pathways. This book provides a 360-degree overview on the current psychological models for gambling behaviors, informed by both neurobiological and clinical observations.
