About the Center

The Duke Center for Neuroeconomic Studies catalyzes research and educational activities that link neuroscience, behavioral economics, decision sciences, and social psychology. Our faculty and student affiliates conduct interdisciplinary research that brings economic theory into the study of the brain and incorporates findings from neuroscience into economic modeling.

What is Neuroeconomics?

“…the goal of neuroeconomics research is to understand how descriptions of economic behavior can inform descriptions of brain mechanisms of behavioral control, and conversely how neuroscientific discoveries can constrain and guide models of economic phenomena.”

Neuroeconomics is an emerging interdisciplinary field combining research methods in cognitive neuroscience and experimental economics. In the past few years, investigators have come to realize that psychological, economic, and neuroscientific perspectives are not truly independent. Instead, they have found that only by combining the mathematical rigor and behavioral precision of economics with the biological inferences drawn from neuroscience can behavior be understood.

The convergence of three major trends in the study of the mechanisms underlying behavior have made neuroeconomics research especially fruitful. Specifically, (1) the growth of functional neuroimaging (fMRI) allows for the measurement of brain activation associated with discrete cognitive events and facilitates in the study of higher cognitive processes like decision making and reward evaluation. (2) The incorporation of economic variables into electrophysiological experiments has allowed for the novel recognition that neurons at multiple levels of processing pathways actually encode motivationally relevant information. (3) The rise of behavioral economics, which relaxes the strict rationality assumptions of neo-classical economics, allows for more empirically relevant economic and decision-making models which incorporate psychological variables.

The interdisciplinary toolbox of the neuroeconomics investigator includes the three elements described above, as well as a smattering of theories and techniques drawn from a number of fields including biology, computer science, and mathematics. Broadly speaking, the goal of neuroeconomics research is to understand how descriptions of economic behavior can inform descriptions of brain mechanisms of behavioral control, and conversely how neuroscientific discoveries can constrain and guide models of economic phenomena. Research in this domain seeks to answer such questions as "What makes us trust someone with our financial (or emotional) future?"; "Why do addicts continue their drug use, despite knowing its negative consequences?"; and "How does emotional state influence consumer preferences?" Other areas of study include inter-temporal choice, risk, learning, attention and awareness, and motivation.