Virginia Tech® home

Thinking the Right Thoughts

Insert your title here

Nathaniel Daw, Ph.D.

Nathaniel Daw, Ph.D.

Professor
Computational and Theoretical Neuroscience
Department of Psychology
Princeton University
Pioneers in Biomedical Research Seminar

Thinking the Right Thoughts

Date: Oct. 31, 2025

Time: 11 a.m. to noon

In-person: Room G101 A/B, 4 Riverside Circle, Roanoke, Virginia

Virtual: Watch via Zoom

About this Seminar

In realistic choice tasks, especially sequential ones like mazes, actions are separated from their consequences by many steps of space and time. A central computational problem in decision making — which arises in various guises such as credit assignment and planning — is spanning these gaps to work out the long-term consequences of candidate actions. Dr. Daw review recent experimental and theoretical work aimed at understanding the mechanisms by which the brain solves this problem. First, he will review a new study that monitors neural signatures of reward expectancy in rodents to monitor how the brain propagates information about individual experiences with outcomes to distal choicepoints. Second, Dr. Daw will report ongoing theoretical work that aims to clarify how the brain can judiciously build and maintain cognitive maps so as to achieve effective decisions while minimizing computational costs. This offers a formal, resource-rational perspective on a range of issues such as habits and slips of action in the healthy brain, but also may explain dysfunctions such as compulsion, rumination, and avoidance.

Additional Details

This is a free event hosted by the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute and co-sponsored by the institute's Center for Human Neuroscience Research. The Pioneers in Biomedical Research Seminar Series, which runs annually from September to May, has featured leading biomedical researchers from throughout the country since the program began in 2012. The lectures are also open to all members of the Virginia Tech community including graduate students, undergraduates, faculty, and staff, as well as the public.

You May Also Be Interested In...

  • Home Item
    Maury Strauss Distinguished Public Lecture
    Maury Strauss Distinguished Public Lecture , home

    Sept. 18, 2025, 5:30 p.m. (Reception at 5 p.m.) | Robert Gourdie, Ph.D., FAHA, AIMBE, Heywood Fralin Professor and Director, Center for Vascular and Heart Research, Fralin Biomedical Research Institute; Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics, Virginia Tech College of Engineering; Elected Member, National Academy of Inventors | Maury Strauss Distinguished Public Lecture

  • Home Item
    Flow Induced Endothelial Planar Polarity for Signaling Regulation
    Flow Induced Endothelial Planar Polarity for Signaling Regulation , home

    Sept. 19, 2025, 11:00 a.m. | Julia Mack, Ph.D., Assistant Adjunct Professor, David Geffen School of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, University of California Los Angeles | Co-Sponsored by the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute Center for Vascular and Heart Research

  • Home Item
    The Bitter Truth: Alcohol Use and Its Effects on Chemosensory Function
    The Bitter Truth: Alcohol Use and Its Effects on Chemosensory Function , home

    Oct. 3, 2025, 11:00 a.m. | Paule Valery Joseph, Ph.D., Lasker Clinical Research Scholar, NIH Distinguished Scholar; Acting Chief, Section of Sensory Science and Metabolism Unit, Co-Director of the National Smell and Taste Center, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders; National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health | Co-Sponsored by the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute Center for Health Behaviors Research and Addiction Recovery Research Center

  • Home Item
    Organization and Control of Hippocampal Networks
    Organization and Control of Hippocampal Networks , home

    Oct. 17, 2025, 11:00 a.m. | Ivan Soltesz, Ph.D., James R. Doty Professor of Neurosurgery and Neurosciences, Stanford University | Co-Sponsored by the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute Center for Neurobiology Research

  • Home Item
    Thinking the Right Thoughts
    Thinking the Right Thoughts , home

    Oct. 31, 2025, 11 a.m. | Nathaniel Daw, Ph.D., Professor, Computational and Theoretical Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, Princeton University | Co-Sponsored by the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute Center for Human Neuroscience Research

  • Home Item
    Maury Strauss Distinguished Public Lecture
    Maury Strauss Distinguished Public Lecture , home

    Nov. 6, 2025, 5:30 p.m. (Reception at 5 p.m.) | Teresa Lambe, Ph.D., OBE, Calleva Head of Vaccine Immunology, Professor of Vaccinology and Immunology, University of Oxford | Maury Strauss Distinguished Public Lecture