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Of course, it would be very interesting to

investigate the
activity of the single neuron during the
decision making process.
This quite difficult task because neurons
are quite small objects.
So, the typical size of the neuron is
between 10-50 micrometers.
So here, you see on this graph, it's a
very small object compared to the tip of
the pencil.
So, how to investigate the activity of
this very small neuron.
We can, of course, visualize the structure
of
this neuron using, for example, the
electronic microscopy.
But we also can put a small sensor, small
electrode near this neuron,
or inside of this neuron, and record the
activity of the single neuron.
So, as you remember, the neuron is a main
computational element of our brain.
So, done right, the accumulating
information from other neurons.
The cell body integrates this information
and produces action potential, and action
potential
propagates the exon and sends the signal
to other neurons, or to our muscles.
So, we can record the activity of one
neuron using single cell recording method.
So we put a very small electrode inside of
the neuron, or nearby, and
we can record the single action potentials
produced by the neuron.
The more active the neuron is, the higher
number, the higher
frequency of the action potentials is
produced by the neuron.
So, overall, the neuron is a
major computational element of the nervous
system.
So a neuron accumulates information.
Neuron is activated by other neurons all
by the sensory organs.
And if this activation exceeds a
certain threshold, the action potential is
produced.
And the action potential propagates the
exon and activate by the
release of the neuromediators, the
muscles, or the next neuron.
So, how can we study the neuron activity
during the decision making process?
We can implant an electrode to the brain
of
the animal and train the animal to perform
certain tasks.
Or for example, to pay attention to the
screen.
So I just give you a few examples
of the reactions of different neurons to
certain stimulus.
So, the presentation of this stimulus is
indicated by the black line in this graph.
So you see that different neurons react
very different, differently to the same
object.
Each line, vertical line here, represents
one spike, one action potential.
So, you clearly see that the first neuron
produces a lot of
spikes, a lot of action potential, during
the presentation of the stimulus.
The second neuron actually reacts to the
offset of the stimulus, and the
third neuron reacts to the onset and to
the offset of the neuron.
On the right side of this picture,
we represent the same data slightly
differently.
So we make a histogram.
We calculate the firing rate, the number
of spikes per second.
And we will use these graphs quite a lot
during the next lecture.
So, on these graphs, we clearly see that
neurons are activated by the stimulus.
And the first neuron is active during the
presentation of the
stimulus, the second neuron is activated
by the offset of the stimulus.
And the third neuron is activated most by
the onset and offset of the stimulus.
So during the course, you will see this
kind of pictures.
So here, monkey has to get food from the
food box.
He sees a representation of the activity
of
the neuron, and each dot here represents a
spike.
So, each line represents a trial.
So what do we see here is that this
neuron is particularly active when monkey
touches the reward.
So this neuron reacts to something that
has a value.
We can visualize this reaction of the
neuron using a histogram.
We can calculate the firing rates, the
number of spikes per second.
So you clearly see that when monkey
touches
something that has a value, these neurons
are activated.
So using this method, we can record the
activity of the
single neuron, or the activity of few
neurons at the same time.
This is a very important method because
we can directly measure the neuronal
activity here.
That's the only method that helps us to do
it.
Unfortunately, this method is invasive, so
we damage a
brain when we implant the electrode inside
of the brain.
Normally, this method is limited by few
neurons.
Unfortunately, we cannot measure the
activity of
billions of neurons in the same time.
And to be honest, we do not clearly
understand the informational code.
So, we don't know all details about the
code.
How information is encoded in the neuronal
activity.
But, this method brings us unique insights
into the decision making process.
We can also use EEG and MEG to study
the activity of large portions of the
human brain.
So, electroencephalography is sensitive to
the electrical
activity produced by the firing of
neurons.
And magnetoencepholography is sensitive to
the
magnetic fields produced by active
neurons.
So, the neurons in our cortex are highly
organized so large groups of neuron can be
seen as dipoles, negatively charged on top
and positively charged in the middle.
So this difference induces local
electrical fields that can be recorded
even outside of the brain using EEG
sensors, EEG electrodes.
So, EEG's method is sensitive to the
electrical, local
currents induced by active neurons, by
large groups of neurons.
So this local, electrical currents also
induce magnetic fields.
And these magnetic fields can be detected
by the MEG method.
Some of you perhaps are familiar with the
EEG method.
Using EEG cap, we can record EEG signal.
And, it looks a bit noisy.
It's difficult, to be honest, to recognize
something
here related, for example, to decision
making process.
So we can use some tricks, and we
can use a technique called event-related
potentials methods.
So, for example, we can present sound, or
a visual stimulus to the person many
times.
So if we average EEG during the
presentation
of the same stimulus, we can filter out
noise.
And we actually get the signal related to
the presentation of the stimulus.
So in this case, you see a volt
response triggered by the presentation of
the auditory stimulus.
So, this is activity of the brain related
to certain stimulus
and, for example, related to certain stage
of decision making process.
So we can use event-related potentials
technique to investigate decision making
process.
Imagine that two subjects play the
matching penny game.
This game is played between two players,
Player A and Player B.
Each player has a penny.
If penny match both heads, or both tails,
Player A keep both pennies.
If the pennies do not match, Player B
keeps both pennies.
We can record evoked responses to the
outcome of this game.
In this case, you see evoked responses to
the
losses and to the wins during the matching
penny game.
So, pay attention to the loss situation,
when the person loose money.
You see a peak around 250 milliseconds,
and this peak
is particularly strong when person change
decision in the next round.
So, I visualize this effect on the right
side of this graph.
So, you see that the peak is particularly
strong
when subject changes the decision in the
next trial.
So, we can predict the decision based on
the both response, based on the
event-related potential.
This method helps us to really investigate
the dynamic
of the decision making process, with the
millisecond precision.
We can also record our activity of the
brain using MEG,
and MEG measures the magnetic fields
produced by the active neurons.
Actually, produced by the electrical
activity of those neurons.
And MEG uses extremely sensitive
devices called superconducting quantum
interface devices.
It's a quite expensive method, but it also
helps us to detect activity
of certain cortical neurons during the
decision making process.
It is important to remember that MEG and
EEG do not reflect the action potentials.
MEG and EEG reflect post-synaptic
potentials.
So, with this method, we actually monitor
the
activation of the neuronal populations by
other neurons.
So overall, MEG and EEG methods are
strongly recommended if
you would like to study different stages
of decision making.
Both methods have excellent time
resolution.
EEG method is quite cheap, but MEG device
is relatively expensive.
Unfortunately, both methods do not have
the optimal spatial resolutions,
but both methods are becoming more and
more popular neuroeconomics.
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