Jan Drugowitsch, Ph.D.
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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: “Optimist” and “pessimist” neurons: How the brain balances risk and reward in making decisions (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.
Harvard Medical School – February 2025: How the brain balances risk and reward in making decisions (article, opens in a new tab)
A 2025 Harvard study found that the brain tracks the full range of possible rewards, not just the average: one group of neurons encodes better‑than‑expected outcomes and another encodes worse‑than‑expected ones. This may help explain how we weigh risk.
Nature
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Neuron
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bioRxiv
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Nat Neurosci
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Nature
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Cell Rep
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bioRxiv
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