A neuroeconomic investigation of risky decision-making and loss in the rat

Humans exhibit a number of suboptimal behaviours in the wake of a loss. For example, gamblers often ‘chase’ their losses in an attempt to break even. Similarly, investors tend to hold on to losing stocks too long in the hope that the declining share price might make a recovery. However, the neural mechanisms that instantiate such behaviour are poorly understood. I begin the introductory chapter with a basic historical overview of fundamental economic concepts, interleaving intersecting ideas from psychology and neuroscience. This leads to a more in-depth exploration of the notion that loss-related behavioural biases might provide insight into the neural mechanisms that underlie risky choice. From this, I argue that rats represent a viable animal model of risky decision- making for neuroeconomic research. The original research presented in Chapters 2 – 5 pave the way toward advancing our current understanding of loss-related biases in behaviour with rat models of risky decision-making. By employing insight from psychology and economics, I developed two models of rat behaviour that can be used to study the neural substrates of loss valuation. I presented the experimental paradigms in Chapters 2 and 5, while demonstrating novel loss-related correlations between the midbrain dopamine system and observed loss behaviour in Chapters 3 and 4. The results presented in Chapter 5 demonstrate that rats are capable of producing behavioural patterns akin to loss aversion and the disposition effect. This work has also highlighted a number of areas for future research. In Chapter 6, I explore potential theoretical implications of the results discussed in previous chapters. In summary, this thesis uses experimental risky decision-making tasks in rats to advance our current knowledge of the ways in which concepts such as loss aversion critically influence our internal representation of value

Noncommunicable Diseases

Noncommunicable Diseases: A Compendium introduces readers to noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) – what they are, their burden, their determinants and how they can be prevented and controlled. Focusing on cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and chronic respiratory disease and their five shared main risk factors (tobacco use, harmful use of alcohol, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and air pollution) as defined by the United Nations, this book provides a synopsis of one of the world’s biggest challenges of the 21st century. NCDs prematurely claim the lives of millions of people across the world every year, with untold suffering to hundreds of millions more, trapping many people in poverty and curtailing economic growth and sustainable development. While resources between and within countries largely differ, the key principles of surveillance, prevention and management apply to all countries, as does the need to focus resources on the most cost-effective and affordable interventions and the need for strong political will, sufficient resources, and sustained and broad partnerships. This compendium consists of 59 short and accessible chapters in six sections: (i) describing and measuring the burden and impact of NCDs; (ii) the burden, epidemiology and priority interventions for individual NCDs; (iii) social determinants and risk factors for NCDs and priority interventions; (iv) global policy; (v) cross-cutting issues; and (vi) stakeholder action. Drawing on the expertise of a large and diverse team of internationally renowned policy and academic experts, the book describes the key epidemiologic features of NCDs and evidence-based interventions in a concise manner that will be useful for policymakers across all parts of society, as well as for public health and clinical practitioners

The socio-spatial construction of consumption: a historical and contemporary analysis

This thesis explores the possibility of a modern consumption distinct from discussions of the ‘consumer,’ ‘consumption,’ ‘consumerism’ and the ‘consumer society’ and rejects the possibility of a universal or ‘human’ consumption-activity rooted in use that merely varies with space and time. This is done by exploring the roots of these terms in the philosophical anthropology of economic theory, specifically the concept of homo oeconomicus. The economic inheritance within contemporary accounts of the capitalist consumption-relation is then pursued through a review of the disciplinary approaches to the topic made by historical accounts of ‘consumer culture,’ the study of patterns of use across the social sciences, from psychology, through geography to marketing and anthropology. Finally, the contemporary sociological investigation of ‘consumption’ is critiqued and its broad reliance upon a utilitarian-derived cost/benefit model adapted to incorporate ‘sign-value’ and discussions of postmodernism are rejected. This prompts the proposal of a ‘postphenomenological’ approach to the study of modern consumption and the ‘terrain’ upon which it is available to experience. The bulk of the thesis, chapters three, four and five, are taken up with a review of the contemporary commodity-form using the phenomenological categories of space, time and causality, respectively. This allows a historical perspective to be employed in the analysis of the role of material factors in the constitution of subjective experience and its role within the emergence of modern consumption. The theory of modern consumption and the sociospatial terrain upon which it unfolds is developed through the concept of ‘affordance,’ adapted from environmental psychology and a re-definition of ‘possession’ that arises from the inter-relation of being and having. This allows the rejection of the orthodox models and theories of ‘consumption’ outlined in chapter two. The thesis concludes by advocating an engagement in a ‘playful’ modern consumption that engages with the commodity-form as the medium within which contemporary ‘experience’ is transmitted and, which, consequently, forms the of the phenomenal forms of subjective experience derived from the capitalist consumption-relation