NEUROSCIENCE

Choice-theoretic foundations of the divisive normalization model

AUTHORS: 

Kai Steverson, Adam Brandenburger, and Paul Glimcher

ABSTRACT

In “Choice-theoretic foundations of the divisive normalization model” (just published in Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization), Kai Steverson, Adam Brandenburger, and Paul Glimcher propose a unification of economic and neuroscientific theories of choice into a single framework. The work explains choices as optimally balancing cost and benefits of reducing stochasticity, matches neural evidence on how utility is represented in the brain, and shows how neural parameters can be uniquely identified from choice behavior.