Paul W. Glimcher (born November 3, 1961) is an American neuroeconomist, neuroscientist, psychologist, and economist. He is Julius Silver Professor of Neural Science at New York University and has held leadership roles in NYU's neuroscience programs, including Director of the Neuroscience Institute at NYU Langone Health and Chair of the Department of Neuroscience and Physiology.[1][2][3] His research has focused on neural mechanisms of decision-making and the development of neuroeconomics.[1]
Glimcher co-founded NYU's Institute for the Study of Decision Making (ISDM) and helped establish the Center for Neuroeconomics, which later became ISDM.[4] He also helped launch the HUMAN Project, a longitudinal research initiative, and co-founded Datacubed Health, a software company supporting behavioral and clinical research.[5]
Glimcher joined NYU's Center for Neural Science in 1994.[1] In 2004 he founded NYU's Center for Neuroeconomics (later ISDM), and in 2010 was named to the Silver Endowed Chair in Neural Science.[4] He has argued for integrating neuroscience, psychology, and economics to study choice behavior, co-authoring early neuroeconomics work such as a 1999 Nature paper with Michael Platt on decision variables in parietal cortex.[9] His book Decisions, Uncertainty and the Brain (MIT Press, 2003) helped popularize the term "neuroeconomics" and received a PROSE Award.[10]
He co-edited the textbook Neuroeconomics: Decision Making and the Brain (Elsevier, 2008; 2nd ed. 2013) with Colin Camerer, Ernst Fehr, and Russell Poldrack; the first edition received a 2009 PROSE Award for Excellence in the Economic and Social Sciences.[11] He later published Foundations of Neuroeconomic Analysis (Oxford, 2011).
The HUMAN Project
In collaboration with the Kavli Foundation's Miyoung Chun, Glimcher helped develop the Kavli HUMAN Project, a large-scale longitudinal study inspired by big‑data approaches, modeled on efforts such as the Framingham Heart Study.[5] The study's aims and potential were discussed across scientific and policy venues.[12]
Datacubed Health LLC
Glimcher co-founded Human Project Inc. (now Datacubed Health), commercializing software to support behavioral/clinical research and participant engagement; he has served as chief scientific officer.[5]
Research
Glimcher's research examines how the brain encodes value and guides decision-making, combining tools from systems neuroscience, psychology, and economics (including fMRI, single-unit electrophysiology, and experimental economics). Key contributions include: - Evidence for utility-like value coding in primate cortex (parietal decision variables).[9] - Tests linking internal value representations to mixed-strategy equilibria in strategic choice (posterior parietal correlates).[13] - Quantitative tests of dopamine reward prediction error signals in midbrain neurons.[14] - Identification of subjective value signals in human medial prefrontal cortex during intertemporal choice.[15] - Axiomatic approaches to measuring beliefs and rewards in neuroeconomic data.[16] - Context-dependent "normalization" as a general neural mechanism for value coding and choice.[17]
His work has also discussed applications to valuation of public goods using fMRI measures of subjective value.[18]
Honors and other work
Glimcher is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has received foundation support from McKnight, Whitehall, Klingenstein, and McDonnell Foundations. He has served on advisory and study committees for the U.S. National Academies and other national bodies.[19][20][21] His textbooks and edited volumes have received PROSE Awards.[11]
Popular press
Glimcher's work has been covered in outlets including Time, Newsweek, Los Angeles Times, BBC, Le Monde, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Quanta, New York Magazine, Science, New Scientist, Fast Company, and Vox.[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][5][29][30][31][32]
Books
Glimcher, Paul W. (2003). Decisions, Uncertainty, and the Brain. MIT Press. ISBN978-0-262-07244-1.
Camerer, Colin; Fehr, Ernst; Poldrack, Russell, eds. (2008). Neuroeconomics: Decision Making and the Brain. ISBN978-0-12-374176-9.
Glimcher, Paul W. (2011). Foundations of Neuroeconomic Analysis. Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-19-974425-1.
Camerer, Colin; Fehr, Ernst; Poldrack, Russell, eds. (2013). Neuroeconomics: Decision Making and the Brain. Academic Press. ISBN978-0-12-416008-8.
↑ Dorris, Michael C.; Glimcher, Paul W. (2004). "Activity in Posterior Parietal Cortex is Correlated with the Subjective Desirability of an Action". Neuron. 44: 365–378. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2004.09.009. PMID15473973.
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