On March 26-27, 1980, a symposium organized by one of us (P. P. ) was held at the l79th American Chemical Society National 1eeting in Houston, Texas, under the sponsorship of the Theoretical Chemistry Subdivision of the Division of Physical Chemistry. The symposium was entitled "The Role of the Electrostatic Potential in Chemistry," and it served as a stimulus for this book. The original scope and coverage have been broadened, however; included here, in addition to contributions from the eleven invited symposium speakers and two of the poster-session participants, are four papers that were specially invited for this book. Furthermore, several authors have taken this opportunity to present at least partial reviews of the areas being discussed. Most of the manuscripts were completed in the late spring and early summer of 1980. We hope that this book will achieve two goals: First, we are trying to provide an overall picture, including recent advances, of current chemical research, both fundamental and applied, involving the electrostatic potential. Second, we want to convey an appreci ation of both the powers and also the limitations of the electro static potential approach. In order to achieve these goals, we have selected contributors whose research areas provide a very broad coverage of the field. Throughout the book, we have used a. u."

As technology has opened new windows into the brain, it has clarified what happens there when people make decisions about money. This clarity has produced a new science called neuroeconomics, which addresses diverse questions, such as why people save, buy stocks, steal, and overspend. The many different methods used in neuroeconomics have, however, often yielded unclear findings about the quality of these decisions, primarily because the field has lacked both guidelines for categorizing the different aspects of quality, and guidelines for selecting methods to study these aspects. Before this book, in which Peter Politser guides the reader through the different regions of study, there was no scientific guide for those interested in neuroeconomics. Politser shows how to evaluate specific elements of choice, such as regret, expectation, risk, ambiguity, time preference, and learning, and surveys economic and behavioral models of decision making skills. He reviews the neural correlates of decisional impairments and inconsistenciesclarifying, for example, why we do not recall what we experience, experience what we expect, or like what we want, and provides detailed tables of decision-making skills, their neural correlates, and possible impairments. Politser also considers what the field of neuroeconomics may add to future conceptions of decision making, and outlines the limitations of various studies of different capacities. He then introduces a broader field for the design and interpretation of neuroeconomic studiesa neuroepidemiology of decision making. Everyone who wants to understand the research in neuroeconomics or use its methods should read this book. Its accessible text, along with an extensive glossary, will guide those with little economic or neuroscience background, and make the book an excellent supplement for courses on neuroscience and decision making.

On March 26-27, 1980, a symposium organized by one of us (P. P. ) was held at the l79th American Chemical Society National 1eeting in Houston, Texas, under the sponsorship of the Theoretical Chemistry Subdivision of the Division of Physical Chemistry. The symposium was entitled "The Role of the Electrostatic Potential in Chemistry," and it served as a stimulus for this book. The original scope and coverage have been broadened, however; included here, in addition to contributions from the eleven invited symposium speakers and two of the poster-session participants, are four papers that were specially invited for this book. Furthermore, several authors have taken this opportunity to present at least partial reviews of the areas being discussed. Most of the manuscripts were completed in the late spring and early summer of 1980. We hope that this book will achieve two goals: First, we are trying to provide an overall picture, including recent advances, of current chemical research, both fundamental and applied, involving the electrostatic potential. Second, we want to convey an appreci ation of both the powers and also the limitations of the electro static potential approach. In order to achieve these goals, we have selected contributors whose research areas provide a very broad coverage of the field. Throughout the book, we have used a. u."