How the Brain Makes Decisions
The human decision-making process is tainted with irrationality. To address this issue, this book proposes a ‘bottom-up’ approach of the neural substrate of decision-making, starting from the fundamental question: What are the basic properties that a neural network of decision-making needs to possess? Combining data drawn from phylogeny and physiology, this book provides a general framework of the neurobiology of decision-making in vertebrates and explains how it evolved from the lamprey to the apes. It also addresses the consequences, examining how it impacts our capacity of reasoning and some aspects of the pathophysiology of high brain functions. To conclude, the text opens discussion to more philosophical concepts such as the question of free will.