Researchers in decision neuroscience recently took part in a
discussion about their work and how this cutting-edge field came to be. They
believe this branch of neuroscience may significantly advance our understanding
of the brain as well as give more insight into a variety of mental disorders
ranging from depression to schizophrenia. For many psychiatric disorders,
patients that are symptomatic are frequently making poor decisions about
numerous things throughout the day, such as how they handle their anxiety and
other emotional decisions.
The new knowledge about the cellular and circuit mechanisms
of working memory and decision processes in the brain has already had a
significant impact on clinical studies of mental illness, for instance,
addiction, fundamentally a problem of making bad choices, resulting from
impaired reward signaling and decision-making circuits in the brain.
Understanding these circuits has become key to linking genes and molecules with
behavior in clinical studies.