Michael C Dorris, Canada Research Chair in Neural Basis of Decision-Making
Assistant Professor in Physiology and Neuroscience, Queen's University brain.phgy.queensu.ca/dorrislab/

I was a post-doc in Paul Glimcher’s lab from 2000 to 2003. Before arriving at NYU, I had expertise studying simple decision-making processes in the brain using single-cell recording in awake behaving monkeys. Although the subject fascinated me, I was always frustrated by the seemingly semantic arguments that often arose from the terminology used to describe various cognitive states. I was drawn to NYU because Paul, with his then post-doc Michael Platt, published a paper in Nature that illustrated how the mathematical formalism of decision theory offered an alternative, and I felt more rigorous, framework for examining neural processes underlying behavioral choice.

My research extended upon this work and examined how neural processes in the parietal cortex were involved in dynamic, free-choice decision-making. We were among the first to train monkeys to perform sophisticated, competitive tasks adopted from game theory. We found that parietal activity tracked the subjective valuation of potential choices even when the valuations of the choices were equivalent during the Nash equilibrium established during mixed strategy games. This was an exciting time to be at NYU as we pioneered techniques and animal models for the burgeoning field of Neuroeconomics that allowed for a detailed examination of the neural processes underlying strategic actions.

Currently I am continuing to examine how valuation shapes behavioral choice with a focus on how it efficiently allocates preparatory processes in regions of the frontal lobes and midbrain involved in generating action. As is often said, your choice of post-docs determines the path of your early career. I certainly consider that true in my case as my post-doc experience at NYU has led to a faculty position, fruitful research program, and ability to obtain grants.