Modern economic theory ignores the influence of emotions on decision-making. Emerging science evidence suggests that sound and rational decision making, in fact, depends on prior emotional processing. The somatic marker hypothesis provides a systems-level neuroanatom cognitive framework for decision-making and its influence by emotion. The key idea of this hyp sis is that decision-making is a process that is influenced by marker signals that arise in bioreg processes, including those that express themselves in emotions and feelings. This influence cur at multiple levels of operation, some of which occur consciously, and some of which non-consciously. Here we review studies that confirm various predictions from the hypothes propose a neural model for economic decision, in which emotions are a major factor in the in tion between environmental conditions and human decision processes, with these emotional providing valuable implicit or explicit knowledge for making fast and advantageous decisions.  2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.