Amitai Shenhav

Amitai Shenhav is an Associate Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, specializing in Cognitive Neuroscience. His research explores the neural and computational mechanisms underlying motivation, affect, decision-making, and cognitive control, as detailed on the Shenhav Lab website.

• Ph.D., Harvard University

Key research themes include:

• Explaining motivated behavior through affective gradients
• Modeling decision-making with mutual inclusivity and value integration
• Investigating cognitive control allocation under varying motivational contexts
• Understanding neural dynamics in target-distractor interactions

Recent publications (2025–2024) highlight his work on value-based decision-making, effort allocation, and computational models of cognitive control. These studies often bridge behavioral experiments with neural recordings and theoretical frameworks.

Scientific contributions include:

• NSF CAREER Award (2021) for research on motivation in cognition

He mentors students and collaborators in his lab, focusing on psychophysiological experiments, computational modeling, and neuroeconomic paradigms. His work intersects with psychology, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence, particularly in attention training applications.