Monday morning. Suddenly, the sky so far clear blue is covered with black clouds, while you are about to leave for work. Several choices are then available to you: should you slip an umbrella into your bag? Put on a vest? Check the weather for the day? Bring in the laundry? So many possible strategies among which you will have to make a choice…
And that is the role of the brain. Scientists already knew that when it comes to take a decision, it was the prefrontal cerebral cortex that stuck to it. But a new study carried out jointly by researchers from the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) and the Ecole Nationale Supérieure (ENS) and published in the journal Science-Express has just clarified the –complex- mechanisms of this process.
To do this, neuroscientists observed the brain activity of 40 young people (aged 18 to 26) in good health while they participated in a test, close to the game Mastermind, where a player must make their partner guess a combination of colored pawns. Using brain imaging, they were able to highlight two regions of the brain that are strongly involved in deduction and decision-making mechanisms.
A first zone is first responsible for assessing the situation and, therefore, the correct behavior to adopt. Then, the second analyzes two, or even three alternative strategies in order to choose the most effective. The latter, which bears the name of “frontopolar” is absent in animals and allows us in particular to formulate hypotheses. Thanks to the joint action of these two regions of the prefrontal cortex, we are then able to determine what attitude to adopt… in the face of a sudden downpour, for example!
The impact of neuropsychiatric diseases
The prefrontal cortex develops well into adolescence…and begins to deteriorate in the early years of aging. The study conducted by INSERM and ENS researchers will therefore provide a better understanding of how our judgment faculties are altered by pathologies such asAlzheimer’s, epilepsy or autism. A great step forward for research!
