ISSN: 2456-3102
Kaizhen Peng, Xiaomin Zhang*
Decision-making is a behavior shared by both human beings and non-human animals. Individuals choose among different options in order to peruse a maximization of overall gain for survival or improving living status. Therefore, they need to evaluate and compare the potential outcome of each choice, and they must also measure the cost that required for pursuing and obtaining the benefit. This costbenefit computation is crucial for optimizing their choosing strategy but usually difficult because of the complexity of the environment. There are several factors that could influence this process, especially time and risk. According to theories of cost-benefit evaluation, these factors are considered to be constituents of cost, and in this way, they modulate the choice behavior. In this review, we summarize the research focusing on the neuronal coding of time and risk, and we suggest that risk and time have dual impacts on decision-making, that they not only influence benefit evaluation, but also increase the cost.