Monkey Brains Signal The Desire To Explore

(Credit: iStockphoto/Roman Kobzarev)

ScienceDaily (Sep. 6, 2009) — Sticking with what you know often comes at the price of learning about more favorable alternatives.

Managing this trade-off is easy for many, but not for those with conditions such as Alzheimer's disease or obsessive-compulsive disorder who are trapped in simple routines.

Using brain scans in monkeys, Duke University Medical Center researchers are now able to predict when monkeys will switch from exploiting a known resource to exploring their options.

"Humans aren't the only animals who wonder if the grass is greener elsewhere, but it's hard to abandon what we know in hopes of finding something better," said John Pearson, Ph.D., research associate in the Duke Department of Neurobiology and lead author of a study published in this week's Current Biology.

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