Jan Drugowitsch

Jan Drugowitsch, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School

Research
Publications

Open the Jan Drugowitsch faculty profile graphic in Canva (opens in a new tab)

Jan Drugowitsch, PhD

Associate Professor of Neurobiology
Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School

Email: jan_drugowitsch@hms.harvard.edu
Website: Drugowitsch Lab website – more information about Jan Drugowitsch’s research (opens in a new tab)

The Aim

The Drugowitsch Lab develops computational models for how the brain makes decisions and navigates under uncertainty.

The Impact

Our brains are remarkably good at making sense of the world that surrounds us in order to act and navigate, even if they only get messy and incomplete information from our senses. Our lab combines tools from neuroscience, machine learning, and physics to figure out how networks of neurons interpret such messy signals to guide behavior. These studies reveal core principles for how healthy brains think, decide, and learn, and could help us better understand brain disorders that affect our decision‑making and navigation abilities. In the long run, this could inform new treatments and more effective technologies for intervention in conditions such as schizophrenia, ADHD, OCD, and anxiety.

A Closer Look

MedicalXpress – February 2025: Neural “optimist” and “pessimist” in decision making (article, opens in a new tab)

This feature describes how the Drugowitsch Lab found a neural “optimist” and “pessimist” working in tandem to predict whether an animal expects a good or bad outcome. Furthermore, silencing one group shifted the behavior of the animal as if it suddenly expected more or less from its choices.

newswise.com – December 2021: Turning information into split‑second decisions (article, opens in a new tab)

This feature profiles how the Drugowitsch Lab uses computational tools to study how the brain turns information into split‑second decisions, like judging whether it is safe to cross a street. It also touches on the lab’s research into how place cells help animals track their position and navigate space.

Publications View

Competitive integration of time and reward explains value-sensitive foraging decisions and frontal cortex ramping dynamics.

Authors: Authors: Bukwich M, Campbell MG, Zoltowski D, Kingsbury L, Tomov MS, Stern J, Kim HR, Drugowitsch J, Linderman SW, Uchida N.
Neuron 2025-10-15
View full abstract on Pubmed

Distributed control circuits across a brain-and-cord connectome.

Authors: Authors: Bates AS, Phelps JS, Kim M, Yang HH, Matsliah A, Ajabi Z, Perlman E, Delgado KM, Osman MAM, Salmon CK, Gager J, Silverman B, Renauld S, Collie MF, Fan J, Pacheco DA, Zhao Y, Patel J, Zhang W, Serratosa Capdevilla L, Roberts RJV, Munnelly EJ, Griggs N, Langley H, Moya-Llamas B, Maloney RT, Yu SC, Sterling AR, Sorek M, Kruk K, Serafetinidis N, Dhawan S, Stürner T, Klemm F, Brooks P, Lesser E, Jones JM, Pierce-Lundgren SE, Lee SY, Luo Y, Cook AP, McKim TH, Kophs EC, Falt T, Negrón Morales AM, Burke A, Hebditch J, Willie KP, Willie R, Popovych S, Kemnitz N, Ih D, Lee K, Lu R, Halageri A, Bae JA, Jourdan B, Schwartzman G, Demarest DD, Behnke E, Bland D, Kristiansen A, Skelton J, Stocks T, Garner D, Salman F, Daly KC, Hernandez A, Kumar S, Dorkenwald S, Collman F, Suver MP, Fenk LM, Pankratz MJ, Jefferis GSXE, Eichler K, Seeds AM, Hampel S, Agrawal S, Zandawala M, Macrina T, Adjavon DY, Funke J, Tuthill JC, Azevedo A, Seung HS, de Bivort BL, Murthy M, Drugowitsch J, Wilson RI, Lee WA.
bioRxiv 2025-08-02
View full abstract on Pubmed

Multimodal cue integration and learning in a neural representation of head direction.

Authors: Authors: Basnak MA, Kutschireiter A, Okubo TS, Chen A, Gorelik P, Drugowitsch J, Wilson RI.
Nat Neurosci 2025-08-01
View full abstract on Pubmed

A unifying theory of receptive field heterogeneity predicts hippocampal spatial tuning.

Authors: Authors: Cohen Z, Drugowitsch J.
bioRxiv 2025-07-31
View full abstract on Pubmed

Hierarchical Vector Analysis of Visual Motion Perception.

Authors: Authors: Gershman SJ, Bill J, Drugowitsch J.
Annu Rev Vis Sci 2025-03-31
View full abstract on Pubmed

An opponent striatal circuit for distributional reinforcement learning.

Authors: Authors: Lowet AS, Zheng Q, Meng M, Matias S, Drugowitsch J, Uchida N.
Nature 2025-03-01
View full abstract on Pubmed

Nerve injury disrupts temporal processing in the spinal cord dorsal horn through alterations in PV+ interneurons.

Authors: Authors: Rankin G, Chirila AM, Emanuel AJ, Zhang Z, Woolf CJ, Drugowitsch J, Ginty DD.
Cell Rep 2024-01-30
View full abstract on Pubmed

An opponent striatal circuit for distributional reinforcement learning.

Authors: Authors: Lowet AS, Zheng Q, Meng M, Matias S, Drugowitsch J, Uchida N.
bioRxiv 2024-01-03
View full abstract on Pubmed

Stochastic Optimal Control and Estimation with Multiplicative and Internal Noise.

Authors: Authors: Damiani F, Anzai A, Drugowitsch J, DeAngelis GC, Moreno-Bote R.
Adv Neural Inf Process Syst 2024-01-01
View full abstract on Pubmed

Causal inference during closed-loop navigation: parsing of self- and object-motion.

Authors: Authors: Noel JP, Bill J, Ding H, Vastola J, DeAngelis GC, Angelaki DE, Drugowitsch J.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2023-09-25
View full abstract on Pubmed