Jhoan Osorno Published in "Issues in Political Economy"

2016 Oct 14

Siena College student, Jhoan Osorno, of Chestnut Hill, was recently published in "Issues in Political Economy." His research titled, "Not All Drug Consumers Become Addicts: An Application of the Neuroeconomic Drift Diffusion Model" was completed through Siena's Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (CURCA).

Siena has a culture of faculty and student engagement in the form of undergraduate research, scholarship and creative activity. Working with faculty mentors, students in Siena's schools of Liberal Arts, Science and Business are using research to uncover their passion while developing skills they will use to pursue it. This student-faculty partnership distinguishes Siena as an institution valuing high experiential learning both in and out of the classroom with challenging research projects that push boundaries and expand world-views.

"My research uses the theoretical framework of economics to model and predict the biological and behavioral outcomes from drug consumption whereas previous research has inadequately linked the biological and behavioral understandings of addiction," said Jhoan. "Most economic models that explore addiction and rational behavior focus on the outcome of a decision where as my research uses the Neuroeconomic Drift Diffusion Model in order to understand an individual's decision making process. This model is important to my research because it utilizes the perspectives from the three disciplines; Biology, Economics, and Psychology, in order to accurately depict the decision process."