When communication between two regions of the brain is interrupted, people doubt more about the value of things and their preferences; However, interrupting this communication does not affect the quality of objective or sensory decisions, which may explain why some people are so indecisive.
A recent study published in the journal Nature Communications explains why the intensity of communication between different regions of the brain determines decision-making and how it can make us more determined or undecided.
- In his study.
- Christian Ruff.
- Professor of neuroeconomics at the University of Zurich.
- Switzerland.
- And his team.
- Found that the intensity of communication between different regions of the brain determines how we make decisions based on our personal preferences.
Important preference-based decisions are different from perceptual or sensory decisions, we make preference decisions when choosing a new car, dress or menu plate, we later wonder if we’ve made the right decision.
Decisions based on sensory aspects are less prone to indecision because they require a more direct assessment of the properties we consider.
Professor Ruff and his colleagues wanted to know why some people are more determined by their preferences and know exactly what they want, while others are indecisive and seem to doubt and doubt.
The researchers found that the accuracy and stability of preference-based decision making depended not only on the level of activity in brain regions, but on the intensity of communication between two specific brain regions.
The regions of the prefrontal cortex, just below the forehead, and the parietal cortex, above the ears, are involved in the representation of our preferences, spatial orientation and action planning.
To reach this conclusion, the team invited volunteers to make preferential and sensory decisions about food, while undergoing a type of noninvasive brain stimulation known as a transcranial electrical stimulation system.
This system works by alternating stimulation by sending alternating currents through the skull to generate coordinated activity in specific regions of the brain.
People were shown pictures of food and asked to choose what they preferred to eat at the end of the experiment (based on their preferences) and also to decide, for example, if one image is blacker than the other (decisions based on sensory aspects ).
Using the stimulation technique, the researchers intensified or reduced the flow of information between the prefrontal cortex and the parietal cortex when they asked volunteers to make their choices.
The professor explains his conclusions: “We found that preference-based decisions were less stable if the flow of information between the two regions of the brain was interrupted. But for purely sensory decisions, have there been no changes?”
Ruff and his colleagues concluded that “communication between regions of the brain is only relevant if we have to decide whether or not we like something. “
Researchers realized that more stable decisions cannot be made by increasing the flow of information between the two regions of the brain, which may have been influenced by the fact that all volunteers were young, healthy and able to make decisions.
Therefore, researchers believe that more studies and research are needed to be able to use this technique in therapeutic treatments, for example, if this treatment could help patients with high impulsivity or indecision arising from a brain disease or injury.