A new academic field, neuroeconomics, has emerged at the border of the social and natural sciences. In Foundations of Neuroeconomic Analysis, Paul Glimcher argues that a meaningful interdisciplinary synthesis of the study of human and animal choice is not only desirable, but also well underway, and so it is time to formally develop a foundational approach for the field. He does so by laying the philosophical and empirical groundwork and integrating the theory of choice and valuation with the relevant physical constraints and mechanisms.

Paul W. Glimcher is Professor of Neural Science, Economics and Psychology at New York University. He is the director of the Center for Neuroeconomics there, the author of Decisions, Uncertainty and the Brain (2003) and the chief editor of Neuroeconomics, Decision Making and the Brain (2009).

CONTENTS Introduction: Wherefore Neuroeconomics? Section 1: The Challenge of Neuroeconomics Chapter 1: Standing at the Threshold Section 2: Philosophical Constraints on Neuroeconomic Analyses Chapter 2: Epistemological Constraints on Consilience Chapter 3: Economic Kinds: Understanding the Abstractions and Esthetics of Economic Thought Chapter 4: Using Psychology to See the Brain in Economics Chapter 5: Behavioral Economics: Exceeding the Limits of Traditional Neoclassical Models Chapter 6: Because, Not As If Section 3: The Choice Mechanism Chapter 7: Neurobiological Kinds: Understanding the Abstractions of Neurobiological Thought Chapter 8: Hard-EU and the Rudiments of a Standard Model Chapter 9: Stochasticity and the Separation of Utility from Choice Chapter 10: The Implications of Neuronal Stochasticity and Cortical Representation for Behavioral Models of Choice Chapter 11: Putting the Choice Mechanism Together, A Summary Section 4: Valuation Chapter 12: The Problem of Value Chapter 13: The Basics of Dopamine: How We Learn and Store Value Chapter 14: Locating and Constructing Subjective Value in the Front of the Brain Chapter 15: Beyond Neoclassics: Behavioral Neuroeconomics Section 5: Summary and Conclusion Chapter 16: Foundations of Neuroeconomic Models Chapter 17: Conclusions Index