Worth the effort?: The neural mechanisms of decision making

Harvard FAS

Should you go to the gym or take a nap? This course considers the relevant factors and mechanisms that are important for making such cost/benefit decisions. We will discuss what makes something physically or mentally effortful and deconstruct the neural circuity that is critical for motivation and reward. We will explore how disrupted decision making can result in mood disorders and build an intuition for how clinicians target such processes to better diagnose and treat their patients. This…