Brain waves blamed for indecisiveness

How often do you have a problem us making decisions? A new study has suggested that intensity of communication between different regions of the brain dictates whether a person is indecisive or not.

The more intensive the information flow, the more decisive a person is.

A team of researchers led by Christian Ruff of the University of Zurich discovered that the key for stable preference choices is the intensity of the communication between two areas of the brain which represent our preferences or are involved in spatial orientation and action planning.

The researchers using a technique intensified or reduced the information flow between the prefrontal cortex located directly below the forehead and the parietal cortex just above both ears.

The test subjects had to make preference-based or purely sensory decisions about food.

Ruff discovered that preference-based decisions were less stable if the information flow between the two brain regions was disrupted.

Ruff said their test subjects were therefore more indecisive.

He explained that the communication between the two brain regions is only relevant if a person has to decide whether they like something and not when they make decisions based on objective facts.

The study is published in the Journal Nature Communications.