Programme
Date: June 7 - 18, 2010
Location: M1.01, Plantage Muidergracht 12, Amsterdam
Monday, June 7
09:00 - 09:30 | Frans van Winden / Tobias Kalenscher – University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Welcome and introduction
09:30 - 12:30 | Adrian de Groot Ruiz and Lucia Talamini - University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Parallel sessions:
- Neuroscience for non-neuroscientists (Lucia Talamini)
- Economics for non-economists (Adrian de Groot Ruiz)
13:30 - 17:00 | Philippe Tobler - Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, UK
The neural basis of risk and reward: views from economic and learning theory
To make advantageous choices, decision makers want to consider the rewards (and punishments) associated with the available courses of action. The value of these rewards in turn is a function of their magnitude, probability, delay, variance (or other risk measures), and their combinations. Behavioural data usually suggest that reward value increases with magnitude and probability and decreases with delay and risk. Microeconomic and learning theories relate the effects of these parameters to behaviour in formal ways. The present talk reviews the neural underpinning of such relations. A particular focus will be the single-cell responses of dopamine neurons and hemodynamic responses from their target structures (striatum and prefrontal cortex), which vary with reward magnitude, probability, delay and risk. Moreover, dopamine and striatal responses code the difference between predicted and obtained reward (reward prediction error), a signal which is at the heart of formal learning theories. Thereby, decision makers can learn about the reward value of different courses of action. Given that the mentioned parameters and signals are represented in the brain, the findings suggest mechanisms with which formal theories of how reward and risk influence behaviour could be implemented neurally.
17:00 - 18:00 | Drinks
Tuesday, June 8
09:00 -12:30
| Kerstin Preuschoff - Institute for Empirical Research in
Economics, University of Zurich, Switzerland (website)
Finance and the brain
Abstract t.b.a.
13:30 - 17:00 | Workgroups
Wednesday, June 9
09:00 -12:30 | Alex Kacelnik - Behavioural Ecology Research Group, University of Oxford, UK (website)
Where Biology, Psychology and Economics meet: ethological
perspectives on function and mechanism of decision-making
In his talk, Dr. Kacelnik will cover three themes.
(1) Are animals rational? And what does this mean? - Different theoretical approaches to the study of animal behaviour, including evolutionary biology, behavioural ecology, economics and experimental psychology use the assumption of rationality to guide their research. However, what they mean by this concept varies, and often leads to wasteful semantic confusions or worse.
(2) Risk sensitivity - Most ecological circumstances include risk in the sense that the precise outcome of each action cannot be precisely anticipated. This is generally known under the umbrella term of risk sensitivity. Theories and experimental approaches to this fundamental issue for all behavioural scientists differ widely, and data are frequently misinterpreted due to excessively narrow theoretical ideas. We will do some unpacking and compare the virtues and vices of available alternatives.
(3) Choice, state-dependence and the cost of thinking: The evolutionary meaning of behavioural paradoxes. - We will discuss recent developments in animal decision research with a focus on recent trends to emphasise irrational behaviour. We will see how adaptive mechanisms of choice produce paradoxical behaviour in laboratory conditions, including preference for lower ranking options and elaborate on the ideal research program for an evolutionarily inspired behavioural science.
13:30 - 17:00 | Workgroups
Thursday, June 10
09:00 -12:30
| Mauricio Delgado - Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, USA (website)
Appetitive and Aversive Processing in the Human Brain
The intricate relationship between appetitive and aversive reinforcement and their underlying neural processes has become increasingly important in the development of comprehensive models of decision-making. The predominant view in the literature is that processing reward-related information tends to engage striatal regions in humans, while learning about aversive outcomes is usually associated with amygdala function. As a result, less focus has been given to the potential role of regions such as the striatum in aversive processing during affective learning and decision-making in humans. In this talk, we will first discuss the mechanisms involved in appetitive and aversive processing that have informed neuroeconomic models of valuation. We will then consider how the human striatum, typically associated with appetitive learning, is also involved in aversive learning, irrespective of type of learning (e.g., classical or instrumental) and class of reinforcer (e.g., primary or secondary), and how striatal activity during aversive processing can correlate with changes in motivated behavior in specific contexts (e.g., social competition).
13:30 - 17:00 | Workgroups
Friday, June 11
09:00 -12:30 | Kenway Louie - Center for Neural Science, New York University, USA
The neural representation of value: delay discounting and
intertemporal choice
Effective decision-making systems must represent the values of choice alternatives. In the natural world, time is a critical element of choice behavior: the value of an action depends upon the future consequences of current decisions. Specifically, delay to reinforcement exerts a strong influence on choice behavior, with the effectiveness of a reinforcer decreasing as delay to reward increases. While this discounting of subjective value with time has been well documented in both animal and human behavior, the representation of temporal and delay information in the neural activity underlying decision-making remains unclear. In this talk, will first cover the basic phenomena of temporal discounting behavior, including the different descriptive and normative models proposed by economic theory. We will then discuss the results of recent neuroscientific experiments in both animals and humans that demonstrate the neural mechanisms underlying temporal information and subjective value representation, and discuss how such findings constrain behavioral models of temporal discounting and choice behavior.
13:30 - 17:00 | Workgroups
Monday, June 14
09:00 -12:30 | Alan Sanfey - Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behavior, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands (website)
Affective influences in social decision-making
Our lives consist of a constant stream of decisions and choices, from the mundane to the highly consequential. To date, the standard approach to experimentally examining decision-making has been to examine choices with clearly defined probabilities and outcomes, however it is an open question as to whether decision models describing these situations can be extended to choices that involve affect and emotions.I will present both behavioral and neural data from several experiments where we have used economic games to observe how players decide in consequential social contexts. Results demonstrate that both financial and affective motivations are prominent factors in choices made, and that assessing these motivations at the neural level can be useful in constructing more complete models of decision-making.
13:30 - 17:00 | Workgroups
Tuesday, June 15
09:00 -12:30
| Giorgio Coricelli - Institut des Sicences Cognitives, CNRS, Lyon, France (website)
Emotion and cognition
Human decisions cannot be explained solely by rational imperatives but are strongly influenced by emotion. Theoretical and behavioral studies provide a sound empirical basis to the impact of emotions in guiding choice behavior. The present talk outlines the neural basis of a class of cognitive-based emotions and their fundamental role in adaptive behavior. We will address the following questions: What are the neural underpinnings of cognitive-based emotions such as disappointment and regret? What are the theoretical implications of incorporating cognitive-based emotions into the process of choice and into adaptive models of decision making? We will discuss scientific literature that uses a fundamentally multidisciplinary approach drawing from economics, psychology, cognitive, and computational neuroscience.
13:30 - 17:00 | Workgroups
Wednesday, June 16
09:00 -12:30
| Kevin McCabe - Center for the Study of Neuroeconomics, George Mason University, VA, USA (website)
The Cognitive Foundations of Trust and Social Exchange
In these talks we will begin by exploring the current state of knowledge on the cognitive foundations of trust and social exchange. We will then look at current experiments which move the study of trust to more fluid, context relevant, social interactions in virtual worlds. Finally we will consider open questions and potential lines of further research.
13:30 - 17:00 | Workgroups
Thursday, June 17
09:30 – 17:00 | Workshop "Debates on Neuroeconomics"
The Workshop can be attended separately from the Summer School; registration is necessary. Click here for more information on the Workshop.
20:00 – 21:00 | Frijda lecture by Ernst Fehr - Institute for Empirical Research in Economics, University of Zurich, Switzerland (website)
Location: Trippenhuis, KNAW, Kloveniersburgwal 29, Amsterdam
The Frijda lecture can be attended separately from the Summer School. Click here for more information on the Frijda lecture.
Friday, June 18
10:00 – 17:00 | Symposium
Location: Trippenhuis, KNAW, Kloveniersburgwal 29, Amsterdam
The Symposium can be attended separately from the Summer School; registration is necessary. Click here for more information on the Symposium