Deciding to stay or go is a deep-seated brain function, monkey-watching researchers find
Monday, June 6, 2011 - 15:30
in Psychology & Sociology
Foraging creatures decide at some point that the food source they're working on is no richer than the rest of the patch and that it's time to move on and find something better. Researchers have now found an area of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) that seems to be integral to this decision, firing with increasing activity until a threshold is reached, whereupon the animal decides it's time to move on.