However, interactions among multiple decision makers in a social group display some new features. The basic building blocks of decision making that underlie the process of learning and valuation also play important roles for decision making in social contexts. This review focuses on the neural basis of socially interactive decision making in humans and other primates. Some of these brain areas might be also involved in updating the preference and strategies of decision makers 10 – 14.Ĭompared to solitary animals, animals living in a large social group face many unique challenges and opportunities, as reflected in various cognitive abilities in social domain, such as communication and other prosocial behaviors 15. Such studies have found that signals related to reward magnitude and probability are widespread in the brain and often modulated by the active process of decision making 3 – 9 (see other papers in this issue). Accordingly, neurobiological studies on decision making have focused on the brain mechanisms for mediating the effect of uncertainty and improving the decision-making strategies by trial and error. In addition, such action-outcome relationships can change frequently, requiring adaptive decision-making strategies that depend on the observed outcomes of their previous choices 2. Therefore, decision makers must always take uncertainty into consideration when they make choices 1. The problem of decision making is challenging, because the future outcomes from a particular action are seldom fully predictable. Molecular genetic studies have also begun to identify genetic mechanisms for personal traits related to reinforcement learning and complex social decision making, further illuminating the biological basis of social behavior. Recently, many neurobiological studies have exploited game theory to probe the neural basis of decision making, and found that these unique features of social decision making might be reflected in the functions of brain areas involved in reward evaluation and reinforcement learning. Second, decision makers may have other-regarding preferences and therefore choose their actions to improve or reduce the well-beings of others. As a result, the outcomes of decisions that depend on the behaviors of multiple decision makers are difficult to predict, and this requires highly adaptive decision-making strategies. First, humans and other animals routinely alter their behaviors in response to changes in their physical and social environment. Decision making in a social group displays two unique features.
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