Honors | The Brain and Decision Making (PSY)
P402 | 25795 | Joshua Brown

TuTh 2:30-3:45pm

This course will explore how neurons in the brain interact to make
decisions. The course begins with the psychology of decision making
and a brief overview of cognitive neuroscience methods, and then it
focuses on a number of exciting recent advances in the cognitive
neuroscience of decision-making, including the new field of
neuroeconomics. The course will explore how individuals decide what
they perceive, decide what they want, and decide what to do. Often
choices are irrational by some definition. We will explore how brain
activity leads to non-normative decisions, and how emotional and
social factors influence decision-making processes in the brain. We
will also briefly explore some relevant ethical and philosophical
issues, such as whether individuals with specific kinds of brain
damage should be held responsible for poor decisions.  Students will
be assigned readings from the required texts as well as additional
selected readings from primary source research articles.