title: Neural dynamics and circuit mechanisms of decision-making.
abstract: In this review, I briefly summarize current neurobiological studies of decision-making that bear on two general themes. The first focuses on the nature of neural representation and dynamics in a decision circuit. Experimental and computational results suggest that ramping-to-threshold in the temporal domain and trajectory of population activity in the state space represent a duality of perspectives on a decision process. Moreover, a decision circuit can display several different dynamical regimes, such as the ramping mode and the jumping mode with distinct defining properties. The second is concerned with the relationship between biologically-based mechanistic models and normative-type models. A fruitful interplay between experiments and these models at different levels of abstraction have enabled investigators to pose increasingly refined questions and gain new insights into the neural basis of decision-making. In particular, recent work on multi-alternative decisions suggests that deviations from rational models of choice behavior can be explained by established neural mechanisms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology and Kavli Institute for Neuroscience, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 06520, United States. xjwang@nyu.edu
authors.forename: Xiao-Jing
authors.initials: XJ
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology*; D011323:Primates