We often think of making decisions as a relatively slow process, one where we weigh carefully the benefits and risks of the potential courses before us. But, let’s face it, if that were the case, we’d never accomplish anything.
A new study co-authored by a University of Chicago neuroscientist identifies neural networks, particularly the areas of the brain that encode the colors we actually see. "We've been able to show where it happens in the visual pathway, which is relatively early," said Prof. Steven Shevell, a leading scholar of color and brightness perception. "It's like a road map that shows where to look for the neural circuits that cause the transition from the earliest neural representations of the physical world to our mental world."