Decision Making

Decision making is a series of cognitive processes which lead to the selection of a course of action among several alternatives. Everyday we make thousands of decisions, although we may not always recognize that we are actively making a decision at that moment. Before getting to far into this, I should start with some questions.
What makes a "good" or a "bad" decision?
What leads us to making a decision?
How does emotion affect decisions?
Are some decisions made for us based on biological predisposition?

The anterior cingulate gyrus and the orbitofrontal cortex are brain regions involved in decision making processes. A recent neuroimaging study, found distinctive patterns of neural activation in these regions depending on whether decisions were made on the basis of personal volition or following directions from someone else.

Another recent study found that lesions to the anterior cingulate gyrus in the Macaque resulted in impaired decision making in the long run of reinforcement guided tasks suggesting that the ACC is responsible for evaluating past reinforcement information and guiding future action.

Emotion appears to aid the decision making process: Decision making often occurs in the face of uncertainty about whether one's choices will lead to benefit or harm. An interaction between emotions and the body states that they cause along with further interaction between the decision making processes. I can understand "rash decisions" this way. Where emotions and the current body state, affect or cloud your ability to make decisions.

Whether we make a decision or not is one thing, but it is not always the decision making that call into question, it is the consequences of our actions. How do we measure a "good" or "bad" decision? Is it how its consequences affect us, how it effects others? It seems that when we are asking whether a decision was good or bad, it is because its effects had an impact in many areas, perhaps including some moral. Decisions seem to be some of the most subjective experiences that we have and often times are are one of the cognitive actions that affect other people. So what guides me in making a decision? My experiences, my volition, my beliefs, the current situation, my emotions and activation of a neural circuit are what guides my decisions. I feel that decisions cannot be judged as good or bad, but the situation and the overall effects of the decision have to be taken into account.

When we start to talk about the morality of decisions and how one should be judged for the decision they made, we start to enter a fairly uncertain, indescribable area of the human mind. It is areas like this where you can really begin to marvel at the power of the mind.