Handbook of Reward and Decision Making

This book addresses a fundamental question about the nature of behavior: how does the brain process reward and makes decisions when facing multiple options? The book presents the most recent and compelling lesion, neuroimaging, electrophysiological and computational studies, in combination with hormonal and genetic studies, which have led to a clearer understanding of neural mechanisms behind reward and decision making. The neural bases of reward and decision making processes are of great interest to scientists because of the fundamental role of reward in a number of behavioral processes (such as motivation, learning and cognition) and because of their theoretical and clinical implications for understanding dysfunctions of the dopaminergic system in several neurological and psychiatric disorders (schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease, drug addiction, pathological gambling, ...).

Comprehensive coverage of approaches to studying reward and decision making, including primate neurophysiology and brain imaging studies in healthy humans and in various disorders, genetic and hormonal influences on the reward system and computational models.Covers clinical implications of process dysfunction (e.g., schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease, eating disorders, drug addiction, pathological gambling)Uses multiple levels of analysis, from molecular mechanisms to neural systems dynamics and computational models.

" This is a very interesting and authoritative handbook by some of the most outstanding investigators in the field of reward and decision making ", Professor Edmund T. Rolls, Oxford Center for Computational Neuroscience, UK

Part I presents basic anatomical and electrophysiological findings in animals on the contribution of specific brain structures in reinforcement-guided decision-making.

Part II concerns brain imaging studies on reward and decision making.

 Part III covers brain disorders involving dysfunctions of decision-making and of the reward system, such as addiction, psychosis, pathological gambling, Parkinson's disease and lesions of the prefrontal cortex.

 Part IV analyzes the influences of hormones and of different genes involved in dopamine transmission on reward and decision making processing.

 Part V presents computational approaches on decision-making and on the roles of dopamine in the brain, combining Bayesian, game theory and neuroeconomics models.