2026 Yael Niv: Neuroscience Researcher – H-Index, Publications & Awards

Discipline name	D-Index	World Ranking	Current World Ranking	National Ranking	Current National Ranking	Publications	Citations
Neuroscience	70	2472	2258	1170	1050	168	23999

Discipline name

D-Index

World Ranking

Current World Ranking

National Ranking

Current National Ranking

Publications

Citations

Neuroscience

2472

2258

1170

1050

168

23999

Research.com Recognitions

2015 - Troland Research Awards, United States National Academy of Sciences For her studies at the confluence of theory and experiment that illuminate the behavioral and biological foundations of learning and decision-making.
2010 - Fellow of Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

Overview

Yael Niv is affiliated with Princeton University in the United States. Their research focuses primarily on neuroscience and psychology, with a particular emphasis on cognitive neuroscience and experimental and cognitive psychology. The scientist's work spans several subfields including molecular biology, applied psychology, and social psychology.

Yael Niv has contributed to multiple research topics, including:

Mental Health Research Topics
Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
Neural dynamics and brain function
Memory and Neural Mechanisms
Functional Brain Connectivity Studies
Receptor Mechanisms and Signaling
Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes

Their most frequent publication venues include:

Biological Psychiatry
Behavioral Neuroscience
Trends in Cognitive Sciences
arXiv (Cornell University)
Nature Human Behaviour

Among Yael Niv's recent papers are:

Reward prediction errors create event boundaries in memory, 2020, Cognition
The case against economic values in the orbitofrontal cortex (or anywhere else in the brain), 2021, Behavioral Neuroscience
The primacy of behavioral research for understanding the brain, 2021, Behavioral Neuroscience
Signed and unsigned reward prediction errors dynamically enhance learning and memory, 2021, eLife
Model-based decision making and model-free learning, 2020, Current Biology

Frequent co-authors include Daniel Bennett, Samuel Zorowitz, Angela Langdon, Sashank Pisupati, and Geoffrey Schoenbaum.

Yael Niv has been recognized with awards such as the Troland Research Awards from the United States National Academy of Sciences in 2015, awarded for studies linking theory and experiment to the behavioral and biological foundations of learning and decision-making. Additionally, they were named a Fellow of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in 2010.

Best Publications

Uncertainty-based competition between prefrontal and dorsolateral striatal systems for behavioral control

Nathaniel D Daw;Yael Niv;Yael Niv;Peter Dayan

3042
Citations
Tonic dopamine: opportunity costs and the control of response vigor.

Yael Niv;Yael Niv;Nathaniel D. Daw;Daphna Joel;Peter Dayan

1314
Citations
Orbitofrontal Cortex as a Cognitive Map of Task Space

Robert C. Wilson;Yuji K. Takahashi;Geoffrey Schoenbaum;Yael Niv

979
Citations
Reinforcement learning in the brain

Yael Niv

940
Citations
Reinforcement learning: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Peter Dayan;Yael Niv

830
Citations
Hierarchically organized behavior and its neural foundations: A reinforcement learning perspective

Matthew M. Botvinick;Yael Niv;Andrew C. Barto

805
Citations
Human Orbitofrontal Cortex Represents a Cognitive Map of State Space

Nicolas W. Schuck;Ming Bo Cai;Robert C. Wilson;Yael Niv

632
Citations
Actor-critic models of the basal ganglia: new anatomical and computational perspectives

Daphna Joel;Yael Niv;Eytan Ruppin

617
Citations
From fear to safety and back: reversal of fear in the human brain.

Daniela Schiller;Ifat Levy;Yael Niv;Joseph E. LeDoux

572
Citations
The effects of neural gain on attention and learning.

Eran Eldar;Jonathan D Cohen;Yael Niv

522
Citations
Context, learning, and extinction.

Samuel J. Gershman;David M. Blei;Yael Niv

474
Citations
Reconciling reinforcement learning models with behavioral extinction and renewal: implications for addiction, relapse, and problem gambling.

A. David Redish;Steve Jensen;Adam Johnson;Zeb Kurth-Nelson

448
Citations
Neural Prediction Errors Reveal a Risk-Sensitive Reinforcement-Learning Process in the Human Brain

Yael Niv;Jeffrey A. Edlund;Peter Dayan;John P. O'Doherty;John P. O'Doherty

436
Citations
Reinforcement learning in multidimensional environments relies on attention mechanisms

Yael Niv;Reka Daniel;Andra Geana;Samuel J. Gershman

433
Citations
The misbehavior of value and the discipline of the will

Peter Dayan;Yael Niv;Ben Seymour;Nathaniel D. Daw

419
Citations
Mood as Representation of Momentum

Eran Eldar;Eran Eldar;Robb B. Rutledge;Robb B. Rutledge;Raymond J. Dolan;Raymond J. Dolan;Yael Niv

404
Citations
A normative perspective on motivation

Yael Niv;Daphna Joel;Peter Dayan

398
Citations
Learning task-state representations

Yael Niv

397
Citations
Dialogues on prediction errors.

Yael Niv;Geoffrey Schoenbaum

371
Citations
Learning latent structure: Carving nature at its joints

Samuel J Gershman;Yael Niv

359
Citations