Computational algorithms and neuronal network models underlying decision processes

Animals or humans often encounter such situations in which they must choose their behavioral responses to be made in the near or distant future. Such a decision is made through continuous and bidirectional interactions between the environment surrounding the brain and its internal state or dynamical processes. Therefore, decision making may provide a unique field of researches for studying information processing by the brain, a biological system open to information exchanges with the external world. To make a decision, the brain must analyze pieces of information given externally, past experiences in a similar situation, possible behavioral responses, and predicted outcomes of the individual responses. In this article, we review results of recent experimental and theoretical studies of neuronal substrates and computational algorithms for decision processes.