Cosyne 2004 Workshops
March 24, 2004
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York
Workshop Title
Neurobiology of Decision Making: Theory and Experiment
Organizer(s)
Xiao-Jing Wang: xjwang@brandeis.edu
Michael Shadlen: shadlen@u.washington.edu
Abstract
This 1-day workshop aims to bring together theorists and experimentalists to discuss emerging concepts and data on the neurobiology of decision making. The workshop will be held on Wednesday March 24, 2004, at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York. Note that this is one day before the main COSYNE meeting. The workshop will include short talks with lots of time for discussion among panelists and audience. Confirmed speakers include Bill Newsome, Daeyeol Lee, Carlos Brody, Jonathan Cohen, James McClelland, Roger Ratcliff, Ranulfo Romo, Michael Shadlen, and Xiao-Jing Wang.
Our aim is to focus on the conversion of sensory evidence to a choice. Among questions to be discussed are:
(1) Is diffusion-to-barrier an appropriate mathematical framework for understanding simple decisions? What are the alternatives and varieties? What are the limitations?
(2) How do neurons implement a decision process? What is diffusing? Where in the brain does this occur? What do we know about the underlying physiology?
(3) Is nonlinear attractor dynamics an appropriate theoretical paradigm for the underlying neurobiology of decision making? How can this model be tested? How does the attractor model compare with the diffusion model?
(4) What are the relevant time scales for decision formation, evidence accumulation, criterion adjustment? What are the biophysical mechanisms of `neural integrators'?
(5) What is the role of learning, reward history, and prior probability on decision formation? How are these psychological factors combined with sensory information (evidence)? What neural mechanisms are involved?
