scholarly journals A neuro-computational model of economic decisions

2015 ◽  
Vol 114 (3) ◽  
pp. 1382-1398 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aldo Rustichini ◽  
Camillo Padoa-Schioppa
Keyword(s):  
Decision Process ◽  
Neural Circuit ◽  
Neuronal Populations ◽  
The Third ◽  
Economic Decisions ◽  
Input And Output ◽  
Neuronal Mechanisms ◽  
Lesion Studies ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
Open Question

Neuronal recordings and lesion studies indicate that key aspects of economic decisions take place in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). Previous work identified in this area three groups of neurons encoding the offer value, the chosen value, and the identity of the chosen good. An important and open question is whether and how decisions could emerge from a neural circuit formed by these three populations. Here we adapted a biophysically realistic neural network previously proposed for perceptual decisions (Wang XJ. Neuron 36: 955–968, 2002; Wong KF, Wang XJ. J Neurosci 26: 1314–1328, 2006). The domain of economic decisions is significantly broader than that for which the model was originally designed, yet the model performed remarkably well. The input and output nodes of the network were naturally mapped onto two groups of cells in OFC. Surprisingly, the activity of interneurons in the network closely resembled that of the third group of cells, namely, chosen value cells. The model reproduced several phenomena related to the neuronal origins of choice variability. It also generated testable predictions on the excitatory/inhibitory nature of different neuronal populations and on their connectivity. Some aspects of the empirical data were not reproduced, but simple extensions of the model could overcome these limitations. These results render a biologically credible model for the neuronal mechanisms of economic decisions. They demonstrate that choices could emerge from the activity of cells in the OFC, suggesting that chosen value cells directly participate in the decision process. Importantly, Wang's model provides a platform to investigate the implications of neuroscience results for economic theory.

scholarly journals Mechanisms of Economic Decisions under Sequential Offers

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sébastien Ballesta ◽  
Camillo Padoa-Schioppa
Keyword(s):  
Orbitofrontal Cortex ◽  
Neural Circuit ◽  
Time Windows ◽  
Neuronal Responses ◽  
Mutual Inhibition ◽  
Economic Decisions ◽  
Neuronal Mechanisms ◽  
Binary Choices ◽  
Decision Mechanisms

AbstractBinary choices between goods are thought to take place in orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). However, current notions emerged mostly from studies where two offers were presented simultaneously, and other work suggested that choices under sequential offers rely on fundamentally different mechanisms. Here we recorded from the OFC of macaques choosing between two juices offered sequentially. Analyzing neuronal responses across time windows, we discovered different groups of neurons that closely resemble those identified under simultaneous offers, suggesting that decisions in the two modalities are formed in the same neural circuit. Building on this result, we examined four hypotheses on the decision mechanisms. OFC neurons encoded goods and values in a juice-based representation (labeled lines). Contrary to previous assessments, decisions did not involve mutual inhibition between pools of offer value cells. Instead, decisions involved mechanisms of circuit inhibition, whereby each offer value indirectly inhibits neurons encoding the opposite choice outcome. These results reconcile disparate findings and provide a unitary account for the neuronal mechanisms underlying economic decisions.

scholarly journals Linearization of symmetrical and asymmetrical two-way Doherty amplifier

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandar Atanaskovic ◽  
Natasa Males-Ilic ◽  
Bratislav Milovanovic
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Order ◽  
Linearization Technique ◽  
The Third ◽  
Simulation Process ◽  
Input And Output ◽  
Carrier Cell ◽  
Fifth Order ◽  
Doherty Amplifier

The linearization effects on two-way Doherty amplifiers are presented in this paper. Symmetrical Doherty amplifier with the additional circuit for linearization has been realized and measurements of the linearization influence on the third- and fifth-order intermodulation products have been carried out. Asymmetrical Doherty amplifier has been designed and effects of the applied linearization technique have been considered through the simulation process. The linearization approach uses the fundamental signals? second harmonics and fourth-order nonlinear signals that are extracted at the output of the peaking cell, adjusted in amplitude and phase and injected at the input and output of the carrier cell in Doherty amplifier.

scholarly journals Perceptual detection depends on spike count integration

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jackson J. Cone ◽  
Morgan L. Bade ◽  
Nicolas Y. Masse ◽  
Elizabeth A. Page ◽  
David J. Freedman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Neural Networks ◽  
Cerebral Cortex ◽  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Recurrent Neural Networks ◽  
Neural Circuit ◽  
Visual Detection ◽  
Spike Count ◽  
Neuronal Responses ◽  
Neuronal Populations ◽  
And Behavior

AbstractWhenever the retinal image changes some neurons in visual cortex increase their rate of firing, while others decrease their rate of firing. Linking specific sets of neuronal responses with perception and behavior is essential for understanding mechanisms of neural circuit computation. We trained mice to perform visual detection tasks and used optogenetic perturbations to increase or decrease neuronal spiking primary visual cortex (V1). Perceptual reports were always enhanced by increments in V1 spike counts and impaired by decrements, even when increments and decrements were delivered to the same neuronal populations. Moreover, detecting changes in cortical activity depended on spike count integration rather than instantaneous changes in spiking. Recurrent neural networks trained in the task similarly relied on increments in neuronal activity when activity was costly. This work clarifies neuronal decoding strategies employed by cerebral cortex to translate cortical spiking into percepts that can be used to guide behavior.

The Cradle of Exotica

2020 ◽  
pp. 4-25
Author(s):  
Karen Polinger Foster
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Natural World ◽  
The Third ◽  
Political Status ◽  
Third Millennium ◽  
Commercial Enterprise ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
And Control ◽  
Clay Tablet

This chapter discusses the role of exotica in the Mesopotamian mind. By 1875, The Epic of Gilgamesh had begun to emerge from the thousands of clay tablet fragments freshly unearthed in the remains of the great royal library of Assurbanipal at Nineveh. Gilgamesh’s drive to possess the exotic is rooted in long-standing Mesopotamian tradition. From the third millennium on, when he supposedly reigned, scholar-scribes organized and classified nearly all aspects of the natural world. Thematic lists of flora and fauna, heavenly bodies, precious and semiprecious materials, and topographical features provided the educated elite with a means of conceptualizing patterns and interrelationships. For Gilgamesh, as for many Mesopotamian rulers, the acquisition and display of exotica were key aspects of kingship. Once secured within the walled, urban cores of Mesopotamian cultural identity, exotica offered tangible signs of wide-ranging military might, commercial enterprise, and political status and control.

scholarly journals Medical Device Sterilization Modality Selection Decision Process

2020 ◽  
Vol 54 (s1) ◽  
pp. 6-14
Author(s):  
Jami McLaren
Keyword(s):  
Product Design ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Medical Device ◽  
Decision Process ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Selection Decision ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
Intended Use ◽  
Selection Of

Abstract Selection of an appropriate sterilization modality requires an understanding of certain key aspects of the product under consideration. Primary aspects to be considered include understanding of the product's intended use and details of the product design. This article reviews these primary considerations for sterilization modality selection and demonstrates the sterilization modality selection process through several example case studies.

Of Women and Washing Machines: Employment, Housework, and the Reproduction of Motherhood in Socialist China

1985 ◽  
Vol 101 ◽  
pp. 32-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean C. Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Communist Party ◽  
Central Committee ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Ruling Class ◽  
The Third ◽  
Economic Decisions ◽  
Traditional Definition ◽  
New Public ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
China Men

Biology is not supposed to be destiny in socialist China. In contrast to class societies where supposedly “men occupy the position of the ruling class… and women become the household slaves of men and the instruments for producing more men,” in China men and women together are said to hold up the sky (biantian). Women are no longer enslaved by reproduction; if they are oppressed, it is merely because remnants of feudal thinking, superstition and backwardness still exist in China. Or so it is argued by representatives of the Chinese leadership. Here I will posit a different view. Rather than blaming feudalism or China's lack of development, I suggest that contemporary political and economic decisions have reinforced sex inequality in China. In this article, I argue that social and economic policies since the Third Plenum of the llth Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party have created conditions which impose on women (and men) sex-differentiated roles in production and reproduction. These new public policies sustain the traditional definition of women as household labourers and reproducers of men.

scholarly journals Requirements for Transparency and Communicability of Regulatory Science

Dose-Response ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 155932581881305
Author(s):  
A. Alan Moghissi ◽  
Richard A. Calderone ◽  
Camille Estupigan ◽  
Rae Koch ◽  
Kelsey Manfredi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Decision Process ◽  
Policy Decision ◽  
Regulatory Process ◽  
Regulatory Science ◽  
Similar Process ◽  
Primary Reason ◽  
Response Curves ◽  
Science And Policy ◽  
The Third

This article presents the results of a study attempting to provide examples that implement transparency and communicability elements of Ethical Rules Principle of Best Available Regulatory Science (BARS) and Metrics for Evaluation of Regulatory Science Claims (MERSC). It starts with an overview of regulatory science and briefly summarizes principles of BARS and key pillars of MERSC. Subsequently, the BARS/MERSC system is used to evaluate the linear nonthreshold (LNT) process used in cancer assessments and the similar process used for evaluating in particulate matter (PM) exposure. The study identifies 3 parts in dose–response curves, where the first part is reproducible science and the second part includes uncertainties and often requires the application of precautionary principle. The primary reason for disagreements on LNT and PM is a lack of recognition that the third part is based on desire of regulators to be protective, a policy decision process. Two PM epidemiological examples are included in this study to demonstrate the point. The regulatory process would benefit from recognizing the distinction between science and policy and excluding policy from regulatory science. Furthermore, the society would greatly benefit from increased transparency in the regulatory process and compliance with the Jeffersonian communication principle

scholarly journals Origen of Alexandria: The study of the Scriptures as transformation of the readers into images of the God of love

2011 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul B. Decock
Keyword(s):  
Reading Process ◽  
Broad Agreement ◽  
The Third ◽  
Origen Of Alexandria ◽  
Mystery Of God ◽  
Key Aspects

For Origen, the purpose of reading the Scriptures is to be transformed more and more into the likeness of God, who is Love, through the Logos embodied in the Scriptures. This article first situated Origen’s approach to the Scriptures in the broad agreement over the centuries that the Scriptures are meant to address the present readers and not merely the original readers. This has led to various approaches to actualise the text up to the present varieties of contextual exegesis. Secondly, the article showed how, for Origen, the aim of actualising the text is the transformation of the readers. It will be necessary, therefore, to briefly present some of the key aspects of Origen’s pre-understanding. The third part focused on Origen’s understanding of the reading process as a movement from the letter to the spirit, a process that involves the transformation of the reader. This process is a struggle to understand what love, which is both the mystery of God and the aim for which every being is created through the Logos, is.

EXPOSED LAYOUTS OF THE BUTTERFLY NETWORK

2001 ◽  
Vol 02 (02) ◽  
pp. 233-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
AMI LITMAN
Keyword(s):  
Bipartite Graph ◽  
Complete Bipartite Graph ◽  
Input Output ◽  
Layout Problem ◽  
Input And Output ◽  
Main Technique ◽  
Butterfly Network ◽  
N Input ◽  
Open Question ◽  
Minimal Area

This work studies layouts of the Butterfly network under the restriction that its input and output verticles are exposed, that is, are placed on the boundary of the grid. Avior et al. have shown that the minimal area of a layout of the n-input Butterfly, without the above restriction, is (1 + o(1))n2). The effect of this restriction on the area was left as an open question. This paper reveals that exposing the input and output vertices is essentially free. That is, it presents an exposed layout of the Butterfly having the same area as above. In this layout, the fractions of the input and output vertices assigned to each side of the grid are as follows when scanning the sides in a circular fashion: half of the inputs, half of the outputs, half of the inputs, and half of the outputs. We refer to such a layout as a [Formula: see text]-layout. The main technique employed in this layout is the reduction of the layout problem of the Butterfly to a certain layout problem of a complete bipartite graph. We use the same technique to produce a (I, 0, O, 0)-layout (inputs on one side and outputs on the opposite side) in area 2 + o(1))n2. Finally, we show that the area of a [Formula: see text]-layout is greater than [Formula: see text]. Hence, this input-output configuration is more area-demanding than [Formula: see text].

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