Each day, the average adult makes up to 35,000 decisions. While making decisions may seem as simple as “yes” or “no” answers, the underlying mechanisms are varied and complex — stress, mood, past experiences and physical cues like advertisements or phone notifications all influence our decisions. In our fast-paced, ever-changing world, how can we set ourselves up for success and make good decisions?
Kurt Fraser, a behavioral and systems neuroscientist in the University of Minnesota’s College of Liberal Arts, is available to discuss dopamine levels in the brain and how context shapes our ability to make decisions.
Kurt Fraser
“Dopamine is the neurotransmitter in our brain that drives our desires and actions. Our research found dopamine release is tied to motivating cues and is tightly controlled by the context in which cues are encountered. You might normally drive past your favorite coffee shop or store without making a purchase, but if you receive a push notification about a free product or limited-time deal, this new stimulus boosts the motivational value of the cue and makes it harder to resist.”
“We are developing new models to assess how different contexts or moods might impact the ability for a particular cue to become motivationally desirable and then drive reward-seeking behavior or extreme fear, as it can with post-traumatic stress disorder. This new perspective could transform our understanding of the factors contributing to relapse and dysregulated decision-making in psychiatric illness.”
Kurt Fraser is an assistant professor in the University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts. His work explores the motivational processes that promote reward seeking and punishment avoidance.
About the College of Liberal Arts
For more than 150 years, the College of Liberal Arts has played a central and enduring role in shaping lives, for the good of Minnesota and the world. CLA is the largest college in the University of Minnesota system with nearly 500 world-class faculty instructing more than 12,000 undergraduate and 1,400 graduate students. CLA is home to 31 academic departments and 20+ interdisciplinary research centers in the arts, social sciences, and humanities. Learn more at cla.umn.edu.
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