Behavioral Finance
Roundtable
“Neuroeconomics”
Union League
Philadelphia, PA
March 21, 2013
Barry D. Waterhouse, PhD
Neuroeconomics
Neural mechanisms underlying
decision-making
• Business
• Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Social science
Movement
Sensation
Executive
Functions
Problem solving
Decision making
Working memory
Sensory perception
Salience
Attention
Multi-tasking
Comprehension
Sequencing
Creativity
Cognition
Neuroeconomics
Factors affecting decision-making:
•
•
•
•
•
•
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Prior experience - knowledge
Current behavioral state – affect, arousal
Innate capacity for risk taking
Reward valuation
Uncertainty – duress, anxiety
Reward history – recent vs extended
Stress
Gender - Age - Genetics - Drugs
Behavior
Single Neuron Activity
and Cognition
Cognitive Enhancing
Drugs
VTA Unit
Discharge
Schultz et al, 1997
Recent Headlines
“One in five Nature readers -- mostly scientists – say they up
their mental performance with drugs such as Ritalin, ……”,
April 28, 2008
“Living the off-label life”, …
December 27, 2008
New York
Times
“Towards responsible use of cognitive-enhancing drugs by the
healthy”,
December 7, 2008
Greely et al.
Nature
Thursday November 8, 2007
The Guardian
Ways to make you think better
Students and exhausted workers have been abusing stimulants
for decades. But these days, if you're keen to feel sharper, and
work for longer, the drugs available are more effective than
they once were - and less likely to make you feel awful
afterwards. No wonder then that the abuse of pills such as
Ritalin and modafinil is becoming a major problem. Katharine
Hibbert reports on the rise of cognitive-enhancing drugs ………
Ritalin…….drug of choice in college dorms for exam week …..
“kiddie coke”
“Vitamin R”