Belief updating dynamics across decision-making tasks: emerging suboptimality in healthy controls
Amber E. Kiely
PhD Candidate in Neuroscience
Centers for Computational Psychiatry & Advanced Circuit TherapeuticsIcahn School of Medicine at Mount SinaiI am a PhD candidate at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, training under the mentorship of Dr. Vincenzo Fiore and Dr. Andrew H. Smith at the Centers for Computational Psychiatry and Advanced Circuit Therapeutics. My research investigates how computational models can illuminate the mechanisms underlying psychiatric disorders, with a focus on decision-making, belief updating, and basal ganglia dynamics in obsessive-compulsive disorder. My work bridges computational modeling, intracranial electrophysiology, and behavioral analysis across species.
Research Interests
Basal Ganglia Computations in OCD
Investigating the computational role of the globus pallidus externus during reversal learning using single-unit intracranial recordings in OCD patients.
Intracranial ElectrophysiologyBelief Updating & Decision-Making
Developing Bayesian inference models to characterize trial-by-trial dynamics of belief updating across inductive reasoning and multi-armed bandit tasks.
Computational ModelingPrefrontal Cortex & Decision Systems
Exploring how the medial prefrontal cortex mediates conflict between deliberative and procedural decision-making systems using optogenetics and electrophysiology in rodents.
OptogeneticsComputational Psychiatry
Applying reinforcement learning, Bayesian inference, and heuristic models to understand how dysfunction in neural computations gives rise to compulsive and maladaptive behavior.
TranslationalSelected Publications
Education
2022 – Present
PhD in Neuroscience (Computational Psychiatry)
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York
2019 – 2022
Post-Baccalaureate Researcher, Redish Lab
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
2014 – 2019
BS in Neuroscience & Philosophy
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis