Why are some people so indecisive?

When communication between two brain regions is interrupted we become more indecisive about the value of something or what we prefer.

However, the interruption of this communication does not affect the quality of objective or sensory decisions. This might explain why some people are so indecisive.

A study recently published in Nature Communications explains why the intensity of communication between different regions of the brain decisively determines how valuable decisions are made.

In their study, Christian Ruff, a professor of neuroeconomics at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, and his team found that The intensity of communication between different regions of the brain determines how we make valuable decisions or what we base our preferences on.

Different attitude towards different decisions

Value decisions based on preferences are different from perceptual or sensory-based decisions. We make decisions based on preferences when we choose a new car, a new dress, or a menu item. Later we might wonder if we made the right decision.

Findings May Explain Why Some People Are More Indecisive

Professor Ruff and his colleagues wanted to investigate why some people seem to be very decisive about their decisions based on their preferences (who always seem to know exactly what they want) while others seem to vacillate and hesitate.

The researchers discovered that The accuracy and stability of preference-based decision is not based solely on the level of activity of brain regions, but in the intensity of the communication between two particular regions of the brain.

The two regions – the prefrontal cortex just below the forehead and the parietal cortex just above the two ears – are involved in representing our preferences, spatial orientation and action planning.

Value decisions are based on communication between two brain regions

To arrive at this discovery, the team invited volunteers to make preference and sensory decisions about food while undergoing a non-invasive type of brain stimulation called transcranial electrical stimulation system.

This system works by alternating stimulation by sending alternating currents through the skull to generate coordinated patterns of activity in specific brain regions.

Subjects were shown photographs of food and asked to choose what they would prefer to eat at the end of the experiment (preference-based decisions) and also had to decide, for example, whether one image has more black than another (sensory-based decisions). ).

Using the stimulation technique, the researchers intensified or reduced the flow of information between the prefrontal cortex and the parietal cortex when the volunteers were asked to make their choices.

The professor explains his findings: “We discovered that decisions based on preferences were less stable if the flow of information was interrupted between the two regions of the brain. Our test subjects were therefore more hesitant. For purely sensory decisions, however, there was no such effect.”

Ruff and his colleagues conclude that it appears that “Communication between the two brain regions is only relevant if we have to decide if we like something and not when we make decisions based on objective facts.”

The team discovered that More stable decisions cannot be made by intensifying the flow of information between the two regions. This could be because the volunteers were all young and healthy with highly developed decision-making skills.

Therefore, the researchers point out that more research is necessary to find out if the technique could be useful in a therapeutic treatment; For example, to find out if it could help patients with very high impulsivity or indecisiveness, perhaps as a result of a brain disorder or injury.