Title: Neurobiology of Attention in Decision Making

Speaker: Richard Ebstein

Date: Tuesday, 29th June 2021

Time: 7:00-7:25pm

Location：Room 311 Hong Yuan Building

Abstract:

We offer a neurochemical model of attention and its role in decision making through a triad of neurotransmitters – dopamine (DA), serotonin (5HT), and norepinephrine (NE) – which modulate respectively gain, loss, and attention processing. Building on Zhong et al.’s (2009) application of DA and 5HT tones to model the loss-gain differentiation in risk attitude, we propose an NE tone, comprising the elements of the attention information messenger system concentrated in the locus coeruleus (LC), as a modulator of the attention function in AU. The LC-NE system facilitates switching between two primary modes of attentiveness: an exploitative mode which is engaged and focused versus an exploratory mode which is disengaged and unfocused. Correspondingly, the NE neuron switches between a rapid firing phasic exploitative mode involving higher energy expenditures and a slow-firing tonic mode with lower energy expenditures. We link NE phasic and tonic firing to properties of the attention function and derive testable implications linking the decision maker’s genetic makeup, LC brain activation, skin conductance response (SCR), and eye movement to observable choice behavior. Notably, attentional loss aversion in the attention function is supported by evidence linking asymmetric loss-gain SCR and behavioral loss aversion, i.e., aversion to symmetric risks around the status quo. We further discuss how to test the prediction of our model on the impact of NE tone on the fourfold pattern of risk attitude – an elevated level of caffeine/nicotine reduces aversion (tolerance) for even-chance gain (loss) and increases preference (aversion) for longshot gain (loss). Taken together, our LC-NE model of attention in decision making, involving an active interplay between phasic and tonic modes at the neuronal level, offers an neurobiological account of the cognitive miser underpinning the AU model.