Prof. Inbal Ben-Ami Bartal
Prof. Inbal Ben-Ami Bartal is a faculty member in the Department of Psychology and the Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of Chicago and her postdoctoral training at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research focuses on the neural circuitry underlying pro-social behavior and empathy, using a rodent model of helping behavior in which rats can free a trapped conspecific.
Her lab examines how social experiences are processed across brain circuits to support empathy, social affiliation, and helping behavior, and how these processes are shaped across development. Using an integrative approach that combines behavioral paradigms with circuit-level, molecular, and computational tools, the lab investigates how helping emerges, is learned, and is modulated by social context and developmental stage. This work aims to advance our understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying social behavior and to provide translational insight into social dysfunction associated with psychopathology and trauma.