My Lab (here is a short article from Innovation Magazine on what we do, and another from Princeton Alumni Weekly)

I am co-director of the new Rutgers-Princeton Center for Computational Neuropsychiatry (CCNP)

Open positions in my lab: If you are interested in joining us, please refer to our Frequently Asked Questions page.

Publications (no longer updated; a more up to date list is here)

The documents distributed here have been provided as a means to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work on a noncommercial basis. Copyright and all rights therein are are maintained by the authors or by other copyright holders, notwithstanding that they have offered their works here electronically. It is understood that all persons copying this information will adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by these copyrights. These works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.

1. FA Soto, SJ Gershman & Y Niv (in press) - A Rational Bayesian Model of the Effect of Stimulus Factors on Compound Generalization - Psychological Review
2. A Solway*, C Diuk*, N Cordova, D Yee, AG Barto, Y Niv & MM Botvinick (in press) - Optimal behavioral hierarchy - PLoS Computational Biology
3. SJ Gershman & Y Niv (in press) - Novelty and inductive generalization in human reinforcement learning - TopiCS
4. RC Wilson, YK Takahashi, G Schoenbaum* & Y Niv* (2014) - Orbitofrontal cortex encodes a cognitive map of task space - Neuron 81(2): 267-279 PDF
5. SJ Gershman, CJ Jones, KA Norman, M-H Monfils & Y Niv (2013) - Gradual extinction prevents the return of fear: implications for the discovery of state - Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 7:164 full text
6. SJ Gershman & Y Niv (2013) - Perceptual estimation obeys Occam’s razor - Frontiers in Psychology 4:623 full text
7. E Eldar, JD Cohen & Y Niv (2013) - The effects of neural gain on attention and learning - Nature Neuroscience 16:1146-1153 PDF
8. A Christakou, SJ Gershman, Y Niv, A Simmons, M Brammer & K Rubia (2013) - Neural and psychological maturation of decision-making in adolescence and young adulthood - Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 25(11):1807-1823 PDF
9. C Diuk, K Tsai, JD Wallis, MM Botvinick & Y Niv (2013) - Two simultaneous, but separable, prediction errors in human ventral striatum - Journal of Neuroscience 33(13):5797-5805 PDF
10. F Lucantonio, TA Stalnaker, Y Shaham, Y Niv & G Schoenbaum (2012) - The impact of orbitofrontal dysfunction on cocaine addiction - Nature Neuroscience 15(3):358-366 PDF
11. SJ Gershman & Y Niv (2012) - Exploring a latent cause theory of classical conditioning - Learning & Behavior 40:255-268 PDF
12. RC Wilson & Y Niv (2012) - Inferring relevance in a changing world - Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 5:189 full text
13. Y Niv, J Edlund, P Dayan & JP O'Doherty (2012) - Neural prediction errors reveal a risk-sensitive reinforcement learning process in the human brain - Journal of Neuroscience 32(2):551-562. PDF
14. YK Takahashi, MR Roesch, RC Wilson, K Torenson, P O'Donnell, Y Niv* & G Schoenbaum* (2011) - Expectancy-related changes in firing of dopamine neurons depend on orbitofrontal cortex - Nature Neuroscience 14(12):1590-1597. PDF
15. E Eldar, G Morris & Y Niv (2011) - The effects of motivation on response rate: A hidden semi-Markov model analysis of behavioral dynamics - Journal of Neuroscience Methods 201:251-261. PDF
16. JJF Ribas-Fernandes, A Solway, C Diuk, JT McGuire, AG Barto, Y Niv & MM Botvinick (2011) - A neural signature of hierarchical reinforcement learning - Neuron 71:370-379. PDF
17. M McDannald, F Lucantonio, K Burke, Y Niv & G Schoenbaum (2011) - Ventral striatum and orbitofrontal cortex are both required for model-based, but not model-free, reinforcement learning - Journal of Neuroscience 31(7), 2700-2705. PDF
18. SJ Gershman, JD Cohen & Y Niv (2010) - Learning to selectively attend - Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. PDF
19. SJ Gershman & Y Niv (2010) - Learning latent structure: Carving nature at its joints - Current Opinion in Neurobiology 20(2), 251-256. PDF
20. SJ Gershman, D Blei & Y Niv (2010) - Context, learning and extinction - Psychological Review 117(1), 197-209. PDF
21. Y Niv (2009) - Reinforcement learning in the brain - The Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 53(3), 139-154. PDF
22. MM Botvnick, Y Niv & A Barto (2009) - Hierarchically organized behavior and its neural foundations: A reinforcement-learning perspective - Cognition 113, 262-280. PDF
23. MT Todd, Y Niv & JD Cohen (2008) - Learning to use working memory in partially observable environments through dopaminergic reinforcement - NIPS 2008. PDF
24. D Schiller, I Levi, Y Niv, JE LeDoux & EA Phelps (2008) - From fear to safety and back - Reversal of fear in the human brain - The Journal of Neuroscience, 28(45), 11517-11525.
25. P Dayan & Y Niv (2008) - Reinforcement learning and the brain: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly - Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 18(2), 185-196. PDF
26. Y Takahashi, G Schoenbaum & Y Niv (2008) - Silencing the critics: Understanding the effects of cocaine sensitization on dorsal and ventral striatum in the context of an Actor/Critic model - Frontiers in Neuroscience, 2, 86-99. PDF
27. Y Niv & G Schoenbaum (2008) - Dialogues on prediction errors - Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 12(7), 265-272. PDF
28. Y Niv, ND Daw, D Joel & P Dayan (2007) - Tonic dopamine: Opportunity costs and the control of response vigor - Psychopharmacology, 191(3), 507-520. Abstract PDF Summary by Neuroskeptic
29. Y Niv, D Joel & P Dayan (2006) - A normative perspective on motivation - Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 10(8), 375-381. Abstract PDF
30. P Dayan, Y Niv, B Seymour & ND Daw (2006) - The misbehavior of value and the discipline of the will - Neural Networks, 19(8), 1153-1160. Abstract PDF
31. Y Niv, ND Daw & P Dayan (2005) - How fast to work: Response vigor, motivation and tonic dopamine - In: Y Weiss, B Scholkopf & J Platt, eds., Neural Information Processing Systems 18, 1019-1026, MIT Press (Outstanding Student Paper Award). Abstract PDF
32. ND Daw, Y Niv & P Dayan (2005) - Uncertainty based competition between prefrontal and dorsolateral striatal systems for behavioral control - Nature Neuroscience, 8(12), 1704-1711. Abstract PDF
33. Y Niv, MO Duff & P Dayan (2005) - Dopamine, Uncertainty and TD Learning - Behavioral and Brain Functions 1:6 (4 May 2005), doi:10.1186/1744-9081-1-6.Abstract Open Access Full text
34. Y Niv, D Joel, I Meilijson & E Ruppin (2002) - Evolution of Reinforcement Learning in Uncertain Environments: A Simple Explanation for Complex Foraging Behaviors - Adaptive Behavior 10(1), 5-24. Abstract PDF
35. D Joel, Y Niv & E Ruppin (2002) - Actor-critic models of the basal ganglia: New anatomical and computational perspectives - Neural Networks 15, 535-547. Abstract PDF

1. Y Niv (2013) - Dopamine ramps up - Nature 500(7464), 533-5 PDF
2. G Schoenbaum, TA Stalnaker, Y Niv (2013) - How did the chicken cross the road? With her striatal cholinergic interneurons, of course - Neuron, 79(1), 3-6 PDF
3. C Diuk, A Schapiro, N Cordova, Y Niv & MM Botvinick (in press) - Divide and conquer: Hierarchical reinforcement learning and task decomposition in humans. In: G Baldassare & M Mirolli eds., Computational and Robotic Models of the Hierarchical Organization of Behavior, Springer Verlag
4. MM Botvinick, Y Niv & A Barto (2012) - Hierarchically organized behavior and its neural foundations: A reinforcement learning perspective. In: A Seth, T Prescott & J Bryson, eds., Modelling Natural Action Selection, pp. 264-269, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. Y Niv & S Chan (2011) - On the value of information and other rewards - Nature Neuroscience 14(9):1095-1097 PDF
6. JER Staddon & Y Niv (2008) - Operant conditioning. Scholarpedia, 3(9):2318.
7. Y Niv & PR Montague (2008) - Theoretical and empirical studies of learning. In: PW Glimcher et al, eds., Neuroeconomics: Decision making and the brain, Chapter 22, 329-249, Elsevier. email me for PDF
8. Y Niv & M Rivlin-Etzion (2007) - Parkinson's disease: Fighting the will? - Journal of Neuroscience 11777-11779. PDF
9. Y Niv (2007) - Cost, Benefit, Tonic Phasic: What do response rates tell us about dopamine and motivation? - Annals of the New York Academy of Science 1104, 357-376. PDF
10. P Dayan, ND Daw, & Y Niv. (in press) - Theoretical and computational neuroscience: Learning, action, inference and neuromodulation. In: L Squire et al, eds., New Encyclopedia of Neuroscience, Elsevier, Amsterdam.
11. Y Niv, ND Daw & P Dayan (2006) - Choice values - Nature Neuroscience 9(8), 987-988. PDF
12. ND Daw, Y Niv & P Dayan (2006) - Actions, Policies, Values, and the Basal Ganglia - In: Bezard, E editor, Recent Breakthroughs in Basal Ganglia Research, Nova Science Publishers Inc., New York, USA.

• Y Niv, P Dayan & D Joel (2006) - The effects of motivation on extensively trained behavior - Leibniz Technical Report, Hebrew University, 2006-6. Abstract (PDF)

• PhD Thesis - Interdisciplinary Center for Neural Computation, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2007): The effects of motivation on habitual instrumental behavior (full thesis here)
• MA Thesis - Psychology Department, Tel Aviv University (2001): Evolution of Reinforcement Learning in Uncertain Environments (PDF)

Teaching

• Neuroeconomics (Spring 2014)
• Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience (Spring 2013)
• PSY338/NEU338 - Animal learning and decision making: Psychological, computational and neural perspectives (Fall 2013)
• Visiting lecturer in course on Reinforcement Learning at the Hebrew University (with Hagai Bergman and Nathaniel Daw, Summer 2009)
• Mini-course on Reinforcement Learning and Decision Making (with Nathaniel Daw, Summer 2008)
• Introduction to Learning and Behavior: Conditioning and the Brain (Hebrew University, Spring 2006)
• Okinawa Computational Neuroscience Course (Tutor; Computational Modeling group - 2005)
• Introduction to Learning and Behavior (Hebrew University, Spring 2003)
• Psychology Seminar - Modeling Spatial Behavior (Tel Aviv University - 1999)

Conferences/Workshops

• Batsheva Seminar on Reward and Decision Making in the Brain, February 2010, Jerusalem (co-organizers: Hagai Bergman and Daphna Joel)
• NIPS Workshop -- Hierarchical Organization of Behavior: Computational,Psychological and Neural Perspectives, December 2007, Whistler (co-organizers: Matthew Botvinick and Andrew Barto)
• Gatsby Foundation Workshop: Motivation and action selection, June 2005, London (co-organizers: Nathaniel Daw and Peter Dayan)

Miscellaneous and links

• ICML Tutorial: The Neuroscience of Reinforcement Learning (video lecture, 2:20 hours)
• Machine Learning at Princeton
• Shiatsu 3rd year project: Shiatsu treatment of abused children
• Seminar project: Reinforcement Learning and the Basal Ganglia (2001) (PDF - 212K)
• Foraging MiniRobot experiment - QuickTime Movie (1.3M) Better resolution version (8.8M)
• Classics in the History of Psychology - The classic papers in psychology ONLINE
• PsychWeb - Resource for psychology links
• The Psi Cafe - Resource for psychology links

Some of my favorite hangouts in... (inspired by this page)

• London
• New York
• Tel Aviv

(old) Photo gallery (permanently under construction)