About the YIA Award
The purpose of the Young Investigator Award is to recognize outstanding contributions by scientists early in their career. Two awardees, one male and one female, are named by the Awards Committee, and are honored at the CNS annual meeting.
Congratulations to Catherine Hartley and Samuel J. Gershman for being awarded the 2020 Young Investigator Award. Catherine Hartley and Samuel J. Gershman will give their award lectures on Monday, March 16, 2020, 1:30 –2:30 pm, in Grand Ballroom of the Sheraton Boston Hotel.
Developmental tuning of action selection
Catherine A. Hartley
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science, New York University
A diverse set of learning, memory, and decision-making processes enable us to respond adaptively to environmental challenges and opportunities. These cognitive processes, supported by dynamic interactions between subcortical and prefrontal circuitry, change markedly from childhood to adulthood. In this talk, I will present work characterizing developmental changes in the cognitive representations and computations engaged to evaluate and select actions as the brain develops. I will discuss how these changes may optimize behavior for an individual’s developmental stage and unique life experiences.
Structured reinforcement learning
Samuel J. Gershman
Associate Professor, Department of Psychology and Center for Brain Science, Harvard University
In this talk, I will survey classical ideas about reinforcement learning in the brain, some of their successes, and the challenges they confront when dealing with real-world complexity. The drive to develop computational solutions to these challenges has led to new insights into the functions of dopamine, the hippocampus, and the prefrontal cortex. A common theme is the need for solutions that exploit structure in the environment.
Previous Winners
2019Muireann Irish, The University of Sydney, Australia |
2018Morgan Barense, University of Toronto |
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2017Leah Somerville, Ph.D., Harvard University |
2016Adriana Galvan, UCLA |
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2015Donna Rose Addis, Ph.D., University of Auckland, NZ |
2014Daphna Shohamy, Ph.D. , Columbia University |
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2013Uta Noppeney, Ph.D., University of Birmingham, UK |
2012Adam Aron, Ph.D., University of California San Diego Roshan Cools, Ph.D., Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour |
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2011Michael J. Frank, Ph.D., Brown University |
2010Kara Federmeier, University of Illinois |
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2009Lila Davachi, New York University |
2008Charan Ranganath, University of California Davis |
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2007Silvia A. Bunge, University of California |
2006Frank Tong, Vanderbilt University |
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2005Sabine Kastner, Princeton University |
2004Anthony Wagner, Stanford University |
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2003Roberto Cabeza, Duke University |
2002Isabel Gauthier, Vanderbilt University |
