ABSTRACT
Making a decision is an elaborate process involving the assessment of potential benefits (e.g., rewards or gains) and costs (e.g., punishments or losses). A child, for example, may approach a cookie jar before dinner because of the potential reward and positive feelings associated with that decision, but may not actually retrieve a cookie due to probable parental reprimand. Evaluating the consequences of our decisions enables us to learn and determine whether we should make similar decisions in the future or choose to alter our behavior instead. There are many computations at the neural level necessary to not only make decisions, but also to appraise and learn from decisions to shape future behavior. As research has advanced toward identifying a circuit involved in day-to-day decision making, one brain structure has emerged as a key contributor across species. The striatum, the input unit of the basal ganglia, plays a crucial role in our ability to process information about positive and negative outcomes, and therefore is an essential structure in the decision-making process. This chapter will describe research on how the striatum responds to reward-related information, and will attempt to underscore how it is able to flexibly learn from this information while efficiently guiding resources toward those stimuli which are most relevant to one’s current goals.
