Prediction and Decision Making Project

This project "Elucidation of the Neural Computation for Prediction and Decision Making" was funded by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas, MEXT Japan, in the fiscal years 2011 to 2016.

The purpose of this research project is to elucidate the principles and the brain mechanisms of human decision making through combination of the theories in logics and statistical inference, analyses of human behaviors and functional brain imaging, measurement and manipulation of brain activities in experimental animals, computer simulations, and robotic experiments.

There are two basic mechanisms for decision making: model-free mechanism that is reactive and habitual, and model-based mechanism that is predictive and flexible. Through innovative experimental and computational approaches, we will clarify how these two mechanisms are selected or combined, how "mental simulation" for the prediction of action outcome in model-based decision making is realized by neural circuits, and how those mechanisms are regulated by molecules and genes.