Lab research highlighted in APS Observer

Lab research highlighted in APS Observer

Many of the most influential financial decision makers in our society from business to politics happen to be middle-aged. Is there some sort of peak of financial reason in the fifties? Recent research in economics, psychology, and neuroscience suggests that there may be.

White-matter pathways affect decision making as we age

White-matter pathways affect decision making as we age

A brain-mapping study, published in the April 11 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience, has found that people’s ability to make decisions in novel situations decreases with age and is associated with a reduction in the integrity of two specific white-matter pathways that connect an area in the cerebral cortex called the medial prefrontal cortex with two other areas deeper in the brain.

Why It Takes So Long to Decide

Why It Takes So Long to Decide

One of the surest ways to frustrate my mother was for her to accompany Grandma Ethel, then in her mid-90s, to her favorite delicatessen near the assisted-living facility she called home in Chicago. It had a menu as big as a billboard, and Ethel relished the chance to consider almost every dish before she settled on an old favorite, no matter how long the process took.