Akrasia and addiction: Neurophilosophy and psychological mechanisms

In this chapter, the authors argue that human decision making is influenced by at least three types of input: bottom-up inherently salient stimuli (e.g., a loud noise), top-down goal-directed biasing, and conditioned reward and punishment signals. In addition, conditioned reward cues can capture attention, and in this way can bias decision making in the direction of cue with corresponding actions (i.e., addictive behavior), even when this counters other goals. Akrasia comes from the Greek term “lacking command” and refers to cases where people appear to act against their better judgment or cases of “weaknesses of the will”. At first sight, human Akrasia problems may seem surprising, given that with evolution, progressively more advanced and abstract control mechanisms have developed, built upon simpler reflex-like processes. Regarding practical implications, there is emerging evidence that sign-tracking develops more strongly when the addictive behavior develops during adolescence; this calls for effective prevention aimed at delaying onset until adulthood, which is not easy to achieve