Abstractions

摘要

To reach a decision, the brain processes information as it arrives -on the fly. But scientists didn't understand why a person would change their mind after making arndecision. Michael Shadlen, a neuroscientist at the University of Washington in Seattle, and his colleagues have now discovered that a tag of several tenths of a second from the time a decision is made to the time the brain finishes processingall available information has a key role in the process. During this time, if new information in the brain's processing pipeline contradicts the original decision, a person is likely to change their mind (see page 263). Shadlen tells Nature more.