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HISTORICAL NEWS & VIEWS: DECISION NEUROSCIENCE

Are we of two minds?

What you choose depends on what information your brain considers and what it neglects when computing the value of actions. An early theory used this insight for a computational account of habits versus deliberation. It has ultimately helped uncover how choice in the brain goes beyond such simple dichotomies.

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Fig. 1: Different evaluation strategies choose different routes to lunch.

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Acknowledgements

I am grateful to my coauthors on the original article, Y. Niv and P. Dayan, and to many other collaborators, trainees, and colleagues who have helped to develop these ideas over the intervening years.

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Correspondence to Nathaniel D. Daw.

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Daw, N.D. Are we of two minds?. Nat Neurosci 21, 1497–1499 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-018-0258-2

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