We make decisions all the time. Sometimes, these decisions are rather mundane, such as whether to have coffee or tea for breakfast, but sometimes our decisions can have very important consequences, such as what career to pursue or how to invest our money. Usually, we are pretty good in making these kind of decisions, but sometimes we make decisions that are not consistent with our actual interests. Such irrational choices violate mathematical models in economics and psychology that prescribe how we should make decisions, but apparently fail to capture the reality of decision making.

Curiously, not only humans behave this way, but many of the behavioral violations of economic principles can be found in animal behavior, too, suggesting that there are evolutionary roots to the way we make decisions. This leads to the idea that the development of economic principles must have taken place at an early level in the course of evolution and served as functions that benefitted the survival of species.

Our research deals with the neural and mental underpinnings of economic choices, and violations of economic principles. We use animal and human models to approach these questions. The comparison of animal and human behaviour allows shedding light on the evolutionary pressures that shaped the decision patterns we observe today. To this end, we apply various behavioural and neuroscientific techniques, including lesion studies, psychopharmacology, tetrode recordings (single unit and local field potentials) and functional magnetic resonance imaging.

1. Dören J, Kupriyanova Y, Schäble S, Trossbach S, McGuire B, Vernon AC, Roden M, Korth C, Kalenscher T (2025) Social Reward Learning Deficits and Concordant Brain Alterations in Rats Overexpressing Disrupted-In-Schizophrenia 1 (DISC1). J Neurosci. 2025 Oct 29;45(44):e1067252025. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1067-25.2025
2. Dashti D, Lüpken LM, Seidisarouei M, Forbes PAG, Schnitzler A, Kalenscher T (2025) Dissociable glucocorticoid and noradrenergic effects on parochial cooperation and competition in intergroup conflict. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2025 Jul 22;122(29):e2502257122. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2502257122
3. Kalenscher T, Lüpken LM, Stoop R, Terburg D, van Honk J (2025) Steeper social discounting after human basolateral amygdala damage. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2025 Apr 22;122(16):e2500692122. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2500692122
4. van Wingerden M, Oberließen L, Kalenscher T (2024) Egalitarian preferences in young children depend on the genders of the interacting partners. Commun Psychol. 2024 Sep 25;2(1):89. DOI: 10.1038/s44271-024-00139-9
5. Nitsch FJ, Lüpken LM, Lüschow N, Kalenscher T (2022) On the reliability of individual economic rationality measurements. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2022 Aug 2;119(31):e2202070119. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2202070119
6. Hu Y, van Wingerden M, Sellitto M, Schäble S, Kalenscher T (2021) Anterior Cingulate Cortex Lesions Abolish Budget Effects on Effort-Based Decision-Making in Rat Consumers. J Neurosci. 2021 May 19;41(20):4448-4460. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2541-20.2021
7. Margittai Z, Nave G, Van Wingerden M, Schnitzler A, Schwabe L, Kalenscher T (2018) Combined Effects of Glucocorticoid and Noradrenergic Activity on Loss Aversion. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2018 Jan;43(2):334-341. DOI: 10.1038/npp.2017.75
8. Hernandez-Lallement J, Van Wingerden M, Schäble S, Kalenscher T (2016) Basolateral amygdala lesions abolish mutual reward preference in rats. Neurobiol Learn Mem. 2016 Jan:127:1-9. DOI: 10.1016/j.nlm.2015.11.004
9. Strombach T, Weber B, Hangebrauk Z, Kenning P, Karipidis, II, Tobler PN, Kalenscher T (2015) Social discounting involves modulation of neural value signals by temporoparietal junction. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015 Feb 3;112(5):1619-24. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1414715112
10. Crockett MJ, Braams B, Clark L, Tobler PN, Robbins TW, Kalenscher T (2013) Restricting temptations: neural mechanisms of precommitment. Neuron. 2013 Jul 24;79(2):391-401. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2013.05.028