The cognitive neuroscience of strategic thinking

Abstract

This chapter focuses on some emerging elements of a neuroscientifi c basis for behavioral game theory. The premise of this chapter is that game theory can be useful in helping to elucidate the neural basis of strategic thinking. The great strength of game theory is that it offers precision in defi ning what players are likely to do and suggesting algorithms of reasoning and learning. Whether people are using these algorithms can be estimated from behavior and from psychological observables (such as response times and eye tracking of attention), and used as parametric regressors to identify candidate brain circuits that appear to encode those regressors.