You just think you know how you actually think

Imagine for a moment that you had to make a choice between tossing a coin and winning $100 if it fell on heads or skipping the coin toss and instead receiving $40 for sure. Which would you do?

Your answer will probably not only depend on your financial circumstances but also on your immediate need for cash and even your current mood.

Studies, however, also show that our preferences are very much a result of inherent tendencies; some of us are risk-takers while others play it safe.

In other words, value is a subjective matter.

What happens in our brains during the decision-making process is the subject of a current study at the Yale School of Medicine and also provided a fascinating discussion for me one recent morning when I met with Ifat Levy, the charming young assistant professor of comparative medicine and neurobiology at Yale.

While there have been other studies of how the decision-making process works, the Yale study is particularly interested in finding out how the decision-making process changes as we age. The Yale study is focusing on adults 65 and older

and their decision-making process in two major areas: money and medical treatment.

However, the results have ramifications in all kinds of decision-making from political and career choices to something as seemingly simple as to whether or not to try a new food.

Now, let’s say that you are asked to choose between a sure gain of $10,000 or a 50 percent chance of getting $20,000, what would you do? Many would avoid risk and take the sure gain. But in real life, the probable outcomes are not so precisely known — making choices more frustrating and difficult. Until recently, it was thought that all of our decisions are based on self-interests.

But new studies have shown that there is often a more complex set of rules, such as social interactions, that can significantly influence the way we compare and weigh the risks and rewards.

We may make a different decision when we are part of a group than when we are alone.

Additionally, using a type of brain visualization known as functional magnetic resonance imaging, researchers have learned that when individuals were given advice by a financial expert, certain parts of the brain that were involved in independent decision-making became less active.

Some of the decision-making burden is “off-loaded” onto the adviser, thus facilitating our ability to make a choice.

Medical decisions can be especially difficult for seniors and their families and some past studies indicate bad news always registers more strongly than good news (which is why marriage counselors say that it takes five compliments to make up for one critical remark). Recognizing this, Yale researchers hope that their results will lead to an ability to train doctors in the art of presenting medical information and results to patients in the best possible way to aid them in making the best treatment decisions.

While mathematical approaches to predict decision-making tendencies of consumers were studied and used as far back as 1960, the neuroscience of decision-making and how the neurons within the brain function to assemble information and make a decision, is fairly new.

Effective communication between regions of the brain enables all the information concerning inputs, memories from past decisions and cost-benefit assessments to be processed and evaluated.

If you are 65 years of age or older and would be interested in helping science and being monetarily rewarded as well, you can be part of the Yale study. There are two sessions of only one hour each during which you will answer a series of questions and play a simple game. You are paid between $40-$300 for the sessions as well as for transportation and parking.

To find out more, call (203-7737-2779) or e mail decision@yale.edu.

Meanwhile, a fascinating book on the subject, “How We Decide” by Jonah Lehrer, explains not just how we decide some of life’s puzzling choices but helps us to do it better. For example, the author says, “Paying with plastic changes the way we spend money. When you buy something with cash, the purchase involves an actual loss while a credit card makes the transaction abstract.

Different parts of the brain are activated if the loss lies in the long term future. The London Observer says, “How We Decide” could change the way you think about thinking.

Contact Jean Cherni, certified senior adviser for Senior Living Solutions and Pearce Plus, at jeancherni@sbcglobal.net or 15 The Ponds at 101 Hotckiss Grove, Branford, 06405.

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