Shenhav Lab
Neuroscience of motivation, decision making, and cognitive control
shenhavlab.org
- If you’ve been taught to think of decisions as a tug-of-war 🪢 (e.g., DDM), our new chapter will try to convince you otherwise! We show that these models miss key aspects of traditional choices, & prevent us from understanding non-traditional ones (e.g., whether/when/how many to choose). 🔗 below:
- Excited to share our chapter "Breaking the Tug-of-War: What Neuroeconomics Can Gain by Moving Past Competition-Only Models" with Yi-Hsin Su, Romy Frömer, and @ashenhav.bsky.social, now out in the new volume, "Neuroeconomics: Core Topics and Current Directions"! doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-02925-6_10
- Our latest paper, spearheaded by @hritz.bsky.social and Romy Frömer, is now out in Communications Psychology!! 🎉🎉 www.nature.com/articles/s44... See Harrison's excellent 🧵 below to learn more about what we found:
- Final paper of my PhD 🤗 www.nature.com/articles/s44... There is growing interest in how cognitive control may improve value-based decision making. However, we find that a recent paper overestimated the role of control in their task, leading to erroneous interpretations of dACC recordings.
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- Come see our lab’s presentations at #SFN2025! 🧠 1️⃣ NANO018.12: “Neural dynamics underlying divergent influences of reward and punishment on control allocation” (11/16, 3:45 PM) by @jasonleng.bsky.social
- Check out our new preprint, led by Romy Froemer and in collaboration with Chih-Chung Ting and Sebastian Gluth: “Goals shape dynamics of attention and selection for value-based decision-making”. 🔗 osf.io/preprints/ps...
- New preprint led by @debyee.bsky.social: "Neurocomputational mechanisms underlying the distinct motivational influences of reward and punishment on cognitive control". 🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Thrilled to share our new preprint highlighting distinct neurocomputational mechanisms underlying how reward and punishment determine adaptive cognitive control - a massive fMRI study and collaborative team effort with the @shenhavlab.bsky.social 🧠 Link here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- At #SNE2025? Check out our lab's presentations! ➡️O.03.02: "Competitors or Opportunities? Mutual exclusivity alters neural and attentional processing of choice alternatives" by @jasonleng.bsky.social at 9:00 on 10/4. (1/2)
- New preprint led by Ivan Grahek! Shifting demands of daily life require constant adjustments in how we allocate cognitive resources. Here we show that slower transitions between different cognitive strategies limit cognitive flexibility across the lifespan: biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧵 A thread:
- In a TEDx talk just out, @ashenhav.bsky.social discusses what research from our lab teaches us about “How to choose when choosing is hardest” (the talk’s original title 😆): ➡️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeHg...
- After scrolling Twitter, it will take you a while to get back into “work mode”. Why is this the case? Our new work (out now in Psych Review), led by Ivan Grahek and Xiamin Leng, explores the costs of adjusting cognitive control to meet different goals: psycnet.apa.org/record/2026-... 🧵 A thread:
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- Come and see our work at #cogsci2025! Ziwei Cheng will be presenting a talk “Incentive Effects Capture Variability in Task-General Control Allocation” on Fri 8/1 (4-5:30 pm, Cognition 7) 🔗Paper link: escholarship.org/content/qt7b...
- Our newest preprint “A novel approach-avoidance task to study decision making under outcome uncertainty” investigates the dynamics of approach-avoid decisions! Check out www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/..., led by Ziwei Cheng and @nadjagingjehli.bsky.social
- Our newest paper, led by Romy Froemer and @fredcallaway.bsky.social, is now out in Open Mind: “Considering What We Know and What We Don’t Know: Expectations and Confidence Guide Value Integration in Value-Based Decision-Making” direct.mit.edu/opmi/article...
- 👉“Leveraging Continuous Psychophysics to Study Cognitive Control Allocation in Dynamic Environments” by Yihuan Dong (A117) 👉“The effect of acute stress on mental effort allocation across motivational contexts” by Tony El Nemer (A115) [2/2]
- Attending #CNS2025? Check out the following posters! (A98, A115, A117) 👉“Decoding Cognitive Control Dynamics: Neural Evidence of Inertia in Cognitive Control Adjustments Following Goal Changes” by Ivan Grahek (A98) [1/2]
- Also at #AffectScience2025, 📣 Ivan Grahek will give the talk “Towards Emotion Regulation Dynamics: A View from Cognitive Control Optimization” for the New Perspectives on Effort in Emotion Regulation Symposium. See you there! 📅: Friday March 21st at 6pm
- Currently at #AffectScience2025? 😁 👉Come visit Ziwei Cheng's poster “Dissociable Influences Of Positive And Negative Incentives On Challenge And Threat States During Mental Effort Allocation“ in Poster Session P1 (P1.T.141)
- Reposted by Shenhav LabNeuroscientist Sarah Heilbronner is a proud product of Martin County schools in Florida 🌴. However, federal budget cuts threaten important work she's doing in brain research. 🧪🏠 @srheilbronner.bsky.social www.tcpalm.com/story/opinio...
- Reposted by Shenhav LabBy @katherinejwu.com "The NIH... supported 99 percent of the drugs approved in the U.S. from 2010 to 2019. The agency has had a hand in “nearly all of our major medical breakthroughs over the past several decades,” The NIH is in a struggle for its (and our) lives. This is existential to America:
- Reposted by Shenhav LabComing to a Zoom near you! The affective gradient hypothesis: An affect-centered account of motivated behavior - Dr. Amitai Shenhav
- Reposted by Shenhav LabFreezing out the NIH's funding means freezing out American innovation. Research into curing cancer, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's all delayed. And ultimately it won't just cost us advancements in life-saving research, it will cost us lives.
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- Our newest chapter, “Breaking the tug-of-war,” reviews the lab’s latest NIH and NSF-funded research that has changed the way we think about decision-making (and we hope how you do also): osf.io/preprints/ps... Led by @jasonleng.bsky.social along with @sheensu.bsky.social and Romy Froemer.
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- Reposted by Shenhav LabJoin us! Science Homecoming helps scientists reconnect with communities by writing about the importance of science funding in their hometown newspapers. We’ve mapped every small newspaper in the U.S. and provide resources to get you started. Help science get back home 🧪🔬🧬 🏠 sciencehomecoming.com
