How the Brain Takes Shortcuts, and Why « dlPFC

How the Brain Takes Shortcuts, and Why « dlPFC: "One of the more interesting and counterintuitive findings in this paper is the association of the executive dlPFC-parietal system with a heuristic strategy. In many other cases, this circuit is thought to be responsible for algorithmic processing of potential outcomes. This result underscores an important lesson, however: we are not homo economicus. It is adaptive to simplify problems. It saves both metabolic and computational resources and, as Barry Schwartz has shown, it can make us happier."