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My nascent ideas on the application of economics/voting theory to decision making in animals, e.g. during choice between different palatable foods.
My nascent ideas on the application of economics/voting theory to decision making in animals, e.g. during choice between different palatable foods.
+During the execution of motivated behaviors, animals often have to identify and choose between two or more objects objects: between food sources (e.g. hi-calorie vs. lo-calorie, or non-toxic vs. toxic), between possible mates (e.g. pair bonding in priarie voles), between shelters, and offspring (own offspring vs. unrelated offspring).
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+Of course, it should be noted that not all species need to make the same choices. For example, a grazing herbivore or a highly specialized predator may not be able or need to make food choices. Promiscuous species (e.g. montane vole) do not form mate preferences (discriminate between mates?) Solitary mothers of altricial offspring (e.g. rats) do not distinguish between their offspring and others, while herd mothers of precocial offspring (e.g. sheep) need to recognize their own.
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+==Mechanism of Decision Making==
The standard view seems to be that when an animal is confronted by a choice of foods, the decision to choose one food over the other is determined by a rational weighing of different factors (i.e. algebraic summation of neural or synaptic weights), leading to a threshold choice for one food over another. For example, when given a choice between two palatable solutions, perhaps dopamine is released in the n. accumbens in response to both flavors; due to prior experience, however, the flavored solution with, e.g., the higher caloric content might induce more dopamine release than the other solution, triggering a choice of the caloric flavor.
The standard view seems to be that when an animal is confronted by a choice of foods, the decision to choose one food over the other is determined by a rational weighing of different factors (i.e. algebraic summation of neural or synaptic weights), leading to a threshold choice for one food over another. For example, when given a choice between two palatable solutions, perhaps dopamine is released in the n. accumbens in response to both flavors; due to prior experience, however, the flavored solution with, e.g., the higher caloric content might induce more dopamine release than the other solution, triggering a choice of the caloric flavor.