Patrick Simen
Associate Professor
Neuroscience Department
Oberlin College
The primary focus of my research is on the role of reward and cost monitoring in human and animal decision-making. I attempt to model basic decision-making circuits in the brain, using dynamical systems models that are as simple as possible, but that achieve enough functionality to account for critical features of both behavioral and physiological data. These models typically incorporate a layer of neural control mechanisms for optimizing the performance of the underlying decision-making circuits: that is, they help these circuits maximize rewards during simulated task performance. The resulting models generate precise, quantitative hypotheses about choices, response times and brain activity that I test with experiments in human behavior, electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
Science Center, A244
119 Woodland St.
Oberlin, OH 44074
psimen@oberlin.edu
Selected Publications
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•Balci, F. and Simen, P. (2014). A drift-diffusion account of temporal discrimination. Acta Psychologica, 149:157-168.
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•Van Vugt, M., Simen, P., Nystrom, L., Holmes, P. and Cohen, J. D. (2014). Lateralized readiness potentials in decision making reveal properties of a neural threshold mechanism. PLoS One, 9(3): e90943.
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•Simen, P., Rivest, F., Ludvig, E. A., Balci, F. and Killeen, P. (2013). Timescale invariance in the pacemaker-accumulator family of timing models. Timing and Time Perception, 1:159-188.
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•Simen, P. (2012). Evidence accumulator or decision threshold - which cortical mechanism are we observing? Frontiers in Psychology, 3:183. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00183.
Me, in front of the glacier at Les Diablerets, Switzerland, Feb. 2007
