Bob Bramson joined the learning and decision making lab as a postdoctoral researcher in October 2025, funded by a VENI grant. His work will focus on how learning about threats and rewards is shaped by proximity to the body. Do we rely on different learning systems for learning to predict outcomes in the near versus far space? Bob will use computational modelling combined with Focused Ultrasound Stimulation and high-precision Magnetoencephalography to see how different neural learning systems (amygdala vs striatum) influence what is learned about the underlying causal structure in the environment, and how the balance between those systems can shift when stimuli enter the peri-personal space.

Before joining the LDM lab, Bob completed a phd (cum laude) and post-doc in the Experimental Psychology and Psychopathology lab led by prof. Karin Roelofs (Donders Center for Cognitive NeuroImaging), where he studied how human lateral prefrontal cortex controls automatic emotional actions.