Sharot: Damage to brain reward pathways paralyzes decision-making
Tali Sharot · Tali Sharot – Optimism, Decisions, and Mistakes (Capital Allocators, EP.55) · Jun 4, 2018 · at 35:59
Dr. Tali Sharot, a cognitive neuroscientist, explains to Ted Seides how emotional and neurochemical reward signals in the brain are essential for human decision-making.
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“People who have impairment in the brain, for example, they have, you know, some kind of problem in a specific part of the brain. And as a result, they don't have these signals. They don't have a reward signal. They don't have emotion. They have a very hard time making decisions. For example, people who have, there's a part of the brain called the orbital frontal cortex, and that is really important for value. So for being able to value different options. When I say value, again, valuation is simply reward signals in the brain. More, a higher reward signal means, oh, that's more valuable for us. So let's say you really like chocolate cake and you don't like carrots. You see chocolate cake, you get a high reward signal on the orbital frontal cortex. Takes that into account and makes, you know, helps you make a choice. People who don't have those signals, they can't make choices basically. They're just like paralyzed in making choices.”
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