Why do people act inconsistently?

According to PNAS, scientists at Imperial College London, UK, have been trying to find out why people are often so inconsistent, when today a decision can be made but tomorrow. changed completely with another decision.

Before making a decision, if the brain is in a resting state, we are at risk through a risky decision - (Image: CCO).

Researcher Tobias Hauser shared that our brain is constantly in a working state, even when we rest and do nothing. Therefore, the researchers decided to find out how this affects the decision-making process . And clearly, our inconsistent behavior is partly explained by the activity of our brains when we rest and do nothing. The scientists invited 43 volunteers to participate in the study.

Volunteers are invited to play black and red. They need to choose between a safe solution, whereby they will win a small amount of money and a risky decision, which can bring large sums of money or nothing. When volunteers play, scientists continuously monitor their brain activity. At the same time, scientists use magnetic resonance imaging equipment to monitor the activity of the medial brain region (midbrain, mesencephalon), the central nervous system part of the brainstem, control visual and auditory functions. alert, control movement, sleep / wake, stimulate alertness and regulate body temperature. This brain region contains the maximum number of dopamine neurons, which dopamine is a very important neurotransmitter for risky behavior. The human brain shows significant fluctuation in the brain region in the absence of external stimulation (i.e. when the person is in a resting state).

As it turned out, the participants' choices depended largely on whether or not they had rested beforehand. That means that before making a decision, if the brain is at rest, people are at risk of making risky decisions.

Thus, scientists have demonstrated that endogenous brain activity provides a physiological basis that changes complex human behavior. Robb Rutledge, one of the authors of the study, explains that spontaneous oscillations in the critical decision-making area of ​​the brain make us very unpredictable and that we can help us adapt to A world that is always changing.