Prof. Dr. Philippe N. Tobler

 

Main Goals, Keywords

Our group is interested in the neural basis of economic and social decision making, reinforcement learning, moral behavior and emotion. We primarily study humans but our approach is also informed by single cell recordings in animals.

Keywords: Neuroeconomics, social neuroscience, neuroimaging, value, risk, reward, punishment

Group Members

1 professor, 3 postdoctoral fellows, 6 PhD students, 1 administrator

Previous and Current Research

Rewards and punishments elicit approach and avoidance behavior and learning and lead to positive and negative emotions. Moreover, they constitute the objects of economic decisions but can also be a consequence of non-economic decisions. Our previous research has elucidated the neural correlates of reward parameters that play a central role in economic and finance theory. These findings included reflections of reward magnitude, probability and risk in the firing of single dopamine neurons and in blood oxygenation signals of the striatum and prefrontal cortex.

One of our current projects is to study moral decision making and learning of moral value. In particular we ask, whether there are commonalities between economic and moral value processing and investigate both group effects and individual differences.

Future Projects

We continue to study the neurobiological basis of economic and social decision making and learning and aim to broaden the range of biological correlates investigated.

Techniques and Equipment

Currently we primarily employ functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and behavioral methods.

Equipment: The Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research is equipped with a 3Tesla scanner for fMRI, facilities for transcranial magnetic and direct current electrical stimulation, a multi-subject behavioral lab and electroencephalography.

Selected Publications

• Kahnt T, Tobler PN (2013) Salience signals in the right temporoparietal junction facilitate value-based decisions. J Neurosci. 2013 Jan 16;33(3):863-9. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3531-12.2013.
• Burke CJ, Brünger C, Kahnt T, Park SQ, Tobler PN. Neural integration of risk and effort costs by the frontal pole: only upon request. J Neurosci. 2013 Jan 23;33(4):1706-13a. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3662-12.2013.
• Zandstra EH, Miyapuram KP, Tobler PN. Understanding consumer decisions using behavioral economics. Prog Brain Res. 2013;202:197-211. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-444-62604-2.00012-5.
• Kahnt T, Park SQ, Burke CJ, Tobler PN (2012) How glitter relates to gold: Similarity-dependent reward prediction errors in the human striatum. The Journal of Neuroscience 32: 16521-16529.
• Heinzelmann N, Ugazio G, Tobler PN. Practical implications of empirically studying moral decision-making. Front Neurosci. 2012;6:94. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2012.00094. Epub 2012 Jul 6.

Selected Lectures, Seminars, Colloquia

BOEC0120 Introduction to Neuroeconomics and Social Neurosciences

Funding

Swiss National Science Foundation, UZH Research Priority Program "Foundations of Human Social Behaviour", Economic and Social Research Council

URL

http://www.econ.uzh.ch/faculty/tobler.html