About us

We study the neuroscience of memory and decision making.

We are a team of scientists dedicated to understanding the neural computations underlying intelligent, goal-directed behavior. A major focus of our lab is to understand how our memory systems construct internal models of the world, and how we simulate future scenarios when making a decision.

Our approach combines theory development and experimentation:

1. We build computational models capable of predicting complex human decisions. These models formalize our knowledge of neuroscience and cognitive science, and in particular the interdependence between learning, memory, and planning. Our models leverage the mathematical formalism and concepts from  reinforcement learning, Bayesian inference, and neural networks. 

2. We validate our models using behavioral and neural data from decision making experiments, conducted either in our lab (human behavior and neuroimaging) or by collaborators (animal electrophysiology).

While our primary goal with this research is to understand healthy cognition, we are also interested in connections to artificial intelligence and to computational psychiatry.

The laboratory is directed by Dr. Marcelo Mattar and is located in the Department of Psychology Meyer Building (6 Washington Place, between Mercer and Broadway) at New York University. 

We were previously located in the Department of Cognitive Science at UC San Diego, where several of our lab members continue their graduate studies.