Emotional learning: from behavior to neural mechanisms

Location: Gerhard M.J. Schmidt Lecture Hall

Learning from reinforcements has led to the evolutionary development of emotions. I’ll describe our models for how learning from punishments is different than learning from rewards, and the underlying neural pathways and codes. I’ll focus on generalization, exploration, and memory extinction, and how they are controlled by the balance between the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex. Finally, I’ll suggest how these models might account for psychopathologies such as PTSD and anxiety.

Rony Paz;

B.Sc in mathematics and CS, B.A. in philosophy (hebrew univ)

PhD in computational neuroscience (Hebrew U.; neural codes of learning visuomotor skills)

Postdoc in comp. neurophysiology (Rutgers; neural mechanisms of emotional learning)

Since 2008: Weizmann Inst. (Professor, Dean of biology, Director of Azrieli inst. for brain and neural sciences)