ABSTRACT
Neuroscientific methods are used in the analysis of cognitive psychology including studies of perception, memory, comprehension, judgement and action, and neuroeconomics is emerging as a new member of the family of neurosciences. A prominent cerebral cortex is a feature of mammalian brains and the significant enlargement of the cerebral cortex is most developed in hominid brains and the prefrontal cortex is often associated with deliberative thinking in neuroeconomic studies. Reflecting the triune division, some neuroeconomic insights about brain structure reflect evolutionary themes, for example some neuroeconomists postulate that violations of standard utility theory have been replicated with animals perhaps because behaviour is propelled by older, less evolved circuitry rather than more highly evolved cognitive structures. A number of neuroeconomic studies, particularly studies exploring interactions between cognition and emotion, have identified a role for limbic structures, including the amygdala, insula, nucleus accumbens and the anterior cingulate cortex.
