The Hayden Lab studies how our decision-making hardware (our brains) compares different options and chooses the most rewarding ones. We record the activity of single neurons during real choices in order to parcel out the contributions of frontal lobe structures to reward-based choices.
The lab is particularly interested in the following questions:
Neuroeconomics: How do properties of neurons shape the principles of economics? How do single neurons guide decisions about risk and delay? Learn more
Self Control: What is self-control? How is the competition between temptation and abstention instantiated in the brain? Can we enhance self-control? Learn more
Curiosity: What motivates curiosity? Why will we devote our scarce mental resources to learn about events in our world, even if those events are only hypothetical? Learn more
Disease: What are the neural underpinnings of addiction and obsessive compulsive disorder? What computations are performed in the brain regions that are dysregulated in these diseases? Why is the same circuitry implicated in depression and Tourette Syndrome? Learn more
And More: Can neural activity tell us anything about free will? How does what we learn in the lab inform philosophy? Learn more
