Ifat Levy, PhD
Research & Publications
Biography
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Research Summary
I am interested in the neural mechanisms that underlie human decision-making, especially under risk and uncertainty, and in the way individual differences in decision-making are reflected by the neural activation. My studies combine functional MRI methods from cognitive neuroscience and experimental methods from behavioral economics to study the neural correlates of decision parameters and valuation processes. Similar paradigms are used in healthy young volunteers, as well as in adolescents, older adults and obese individuals in order to unravel changes in behavior and in neural activation that may be at the core of pathological behaviors such as extreme risk-taking in adolescents and overeating in obese individuals.
Specialized Terms: Decision-making; Value; Reward; Risk; Ambiguity; Functional MRI
Extensive Research Description
- Risk and ambiguity in the negative domain – examining behavior and neural activation for decision in terms of risk and ambiguity between outcomes that include losses.
- Behavior and neural correlates of decision under risk and ambiguity across the lifespan.
- Decision parameters in obese and lean individuals – comparing attitudes towards decision parameters such as risk and ambiguity in different BMI groups.
- Implicit learning of value - behavior and neural correlates of value learning in conditioning paradigms and their relationship to choice processes.
- Representation of food in obese and lean subjects - how is food that is depicted in movies perceived and how does it affect choice.
Coauthors
Research Interests
Basal Ganglia; Behavior and Behavior Mechanisms; Central Nervous System; Cerebral Cortex
Public Health Interests
Aging; Obesity; Child/Adolescent Health
Selected Publications
- Distributed neural representation of saliency controlled value and category during anticipation of rewards and punishments.Zhang Z, Fanning J, Ehrlich DB, Chen W, Lee D, Levy I. Distributed neural representation of saliency controlled value and category during anticipation of rewards and punishments. Nature Communications 2017, 8: 1907. PMID: 29203854, PMCID: PMC5714958, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-02080-4.
- Neuroanatomy accounts for age-related changes in risk preferences.Grubb MA, Tymula A, Gilaie-Dotan S, Glimcher PW, Levy I. Neuroanatomy accounts for age-related changes in risk preferences. Nature Communications 2016, 7: 13822. PMID: 27959326, PMCID: PMC5159889, DOI: 10.1038/ncomms13822.
- Neuroanatomy predicts individual risk attitudes.Gilaie-Dotan S, Tymula A, Cooper N, Kable JW, Glimcher PW, Levy I. Neuroanatomy predicts individual risk attitudes. The Journal Of Neuroscience : The Official Journal Of The Society For Neuroscience 2014, 34: 12394-401. PMID: 25209279, PMCID: PMC4160774, DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1600-14.2014.
- Impaired associative learning with food rewards in obese women.Zhang Z, Manson KF, Schiller D, Levy I. Impaired associative learning with food rewards in obese women. Current Biology : CB 2014, 24: 1731-6. PMID: 25042588, DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2014.05.075.
- Like cognitive function, decision making across the life span shows profound age-related changes.Tymula A, Rosenberg Belmaker LA, Ruderman L, Glimcher PW, Levy I. Like cognitive function, decision making across the life span shows profound age-related changes. Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences Of The United States Of America 2013, 110: 17143-8. PMID: 24082105, PMCID: PMC3801020, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1309909110.
Clinical Trials
Conditions | Study Title |
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Diseases of the Nervous System; Mental Health & Behavioral Research | Intensive 7-day Treatment for PTSD Combining Ketamine With Exposure Therapy (PTSD) |
Diseases of the Nervous System; Mental Health & Behavioral Research | Biomarkers of Clinical Subtype and Treatment Response in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder |