Imagine you’re standing in line at your favorite bakery and deciding whether to get a donut or a tart. You weigh them, the donut wins, and you’re stuck with it. However, by the time you’re at the front of the line, there are only tarts left. So, you buy one. These two decisions seem completely different. One involves deliberation based on our unique and personal preferences, while the other simply involves recognizing and choosing the available option. But our latest research, published in the journal Imaging Neuroscience, shows that our brains actually make these decisions in surprisingly similar ways.

