The role of neuronal processes in economic decision making

Studying economic decision processes is one of the main themes in business management research. In this field of research conceptual approaches and theories with specific reasonable assumptions concerning mental processes of
individual decision makers are used. The growing research field of neuroeconomics seeks to overcome simplifying assumptions in the study of human behavior and seeks to provide methods for measuring processes of economic decisions on a neuronal level. The imaging techniques in neuroscience provide the opportunity to map neuronal activity in the brain. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is considered the most influential method of
cognitive neuroscience, because it works without radiation exposure for subjects and provides highly detailed anatomical and functional images of the brain. Previous neuroeconomic research focused on the effect of numerous factors on the activity of certain brain regions. The findings of these studies barely draw conclusions about which incentives or environmental situations trigger a desired or undesired behavior through activating certain brain regions. In addition, predominantly private economic decisions have been examined, which have to be distinguished from business decisions. This research project pursues the objective to empirically study the relation between cognitive load in an economic situation and the neuronal processes within a decision-maker as well as their
impact on decision quality. In order to form a conceptual framework of neuronal processes, information load theory, cognitive load theory and prospect theory are linked with knowledge about the architecture of human memory. Within this framework the neuronal processes in economic decision-making situations are divided into three groups: Processes of information weighting, processes of information acquisition and processes of information processing. For the main study 30 subjects were examined using fMRI. Results support several research hypotheses. First, it can be shown that the amount of information mainly influences the processes of information weighting whereas the structure of the information has an influence on the neuronal processes of all three categories (information weighting, information acquisition, information processing). Second, it is shown that the context-specific experience moderates the relation between factors of a situation and the neuronal processes within a person. The context-specific risk propensity however moderates the effects of the neuronal processes on decision quality. Finally, it can be shown that the processes of information weighting, information acquisition and information processing have a significant correlation with decision quality. Both positive and negative correlations are found. For example, it can be shown that activation in the area of anterior intraparietal sulcus (left), which is associated with the processing of numerical information, is negatively related to decision quality.