Prof. Tom Schonberg

Tom Schonberg started his studies in the interdisciplinary program at Tel Aviv University, a program leading directly to masters without an undergraduate degree. He received his PhD from Tel Aviv University in 2010. In his PhD, he showed a direct link between reinforcement learning functional MRI signals in the human striatum and individual differences in learning. 

In his post-doctoral research, he studied the neural basis of risky decision making and then focused on mechanisms of behavioral change with and without external reinforcement. 

Since October 2014 he is a senior lecturer (Assistant Professor) in the department of Neurobiology and the Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University. The research in his laboratory is focused on the neural basis of behavior change. The lab’s research focuses on the process of value construction, generalization, how values can be perturbed and how these processes are manifested in the human brain. 

The lab studies the multiple components of these processes by designing novel behavioral paradigms and applying converging research methodologies to analyze them. These include structural and functional MRI, eye tracking and computational decision-making models, all used together with the common goal of studying neural plasticity underlying behavior. 

Tom’s laboratory aims to adhere to open and reproducible scientific practices.