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As a central figure in the emerging field of neuroeconomics, Samuel M. McLure, of the Center for the Study of Brain, Mind, & Behavior at Princeton University, will lecture on “Time Discounting and the Brain” 3-4:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 22 in the Gendebein Room, Skillman Library. A reception for faculty and students will follow.
Neuroeconomics is an interdisciplinary research program with the goal of building a biological model of decision-making in economic environments. Neuroeconomists study how the embodied brain enables the mind to make economic decisions.
“Dr. McLure is a pioneer and premier scholar in applying the tools of neuroscience to study topics and issues that are typically associated with the field of economics. These new tools are revolutionizing our ability to understand, explain, and forecast decision-making, choices, and behavior,” says Mark Crain, Simon Professor of Political Economy.
By combining techniques from cognitive neuroscience and experimental economics, researchers can watch neural activity in real time. This allows them to observe how this activity depends on the economic environment, and test hypotheses about how the emergent mind makes economic decisions.
Neuroeconomics allows a more complete understanding of both the wide range of heterogeneity in human behavior and the role of institutions as ordered extensions of our minds.
Crain believes that students will be well-served by exposure to these innovative developments.
“The emerging insights from neuroeconomics are potentially one of the most important developments in the social and behavioral sciences in the past 100 years,” he says. “Neuroeconomics is being applied in an increasing number of innovative ways in finance, labor economics, game theory, and macroeconomics.”
McClure’s lecture is co-sponsored by the Policy Studies program, Neuroscience program, and department of economics & business.