The Fundamentals of Neuroeconomics

Neuroeconomics is an emergent multidisciplinary field that strives to understand how and why humans make decisions. The field brings together behavioral methods and sophisticated computational theories from microeconomics, an understanding of emotional influences on behavior from psychology, and human functional neural imaging from neuroscience. This chapter presents the fundamentals of neuroeconomics, thus describing the concept of neuroeconomics; neuroimaging applications; neuroeconomics and loss aversion; neuroeconomics and temporal discounting; neuroeconomics of decision making in humans and animals; neuroeconomics, behavioral economics, and irrationality; neuroeconomics and utility theory; neural systems in economic decision making; neural systems in reward system; neural systems in cognitive control system; game theory, strategic interaction, and neuroeconomic studies; and the types of evidence about economic behavior.