Why Trusting Your 'Gut' Feeling may Help

Sometimes, we make better decisions when we taken more time to think, and there are times when time really doesn't matter.

A study led by Zachary Mainen, Director of the Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme reports that when rats were challenged with a series of perceptual decision problems, their performance was just as good when they decided rapidly as when they took a much longer time to respond.

Split-Second Helpings of Intuition Serve Lasting Impressions
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Despite being encouraged to slow down and try harder, the subjects of this study achieved their maximum performance in less than 300 milliseconds.

"There are many kinds of decisions, and for some, having more time appears to be of no help. In these cases, you'd better go with your intuition, and that's what our subjects did," Mainen, the neuroscientist who led this study, while an Associate Professor at CSHL, in the USA said.

This study suggests that rats can be used as an animal model to investigate what is happening in the human brain when 'intuitive' decisions are being made.

Study Examines Whether We Should Trust Our Intuition
When rats were challenged with a series of perceptual decision problems, their performance was just as good when they decided rapidly as when they took a much longer time to respond.

"Decision-making is not a well-understood process, but it appears to be surprisingly similar among species. This study provides a basis to begin to take apart one type of decision and see how it really works," the author added.

The study is published in the scientific journal, Neuron.

Why Your Intuition can Be Right, And Wrong
We often turn to our own minds in times where we have to take decisions solely based on whether it 'feels' good - or what is popularly known as gut instinct.