Paul Glimcher (original) (raw)

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American neuroscientist, psychologist, and economist (born 1961)

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]

Early life and education

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Paul W. Glimcher was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Arne and Mildred Glimcher. His father, Arne Glimcher, founded New York City's Pace Gallery.[6] He attended the Dalton School in Manhattan, earned an A.B. in neuroscience from Princeton University in 1983, and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania in 1989 under psychologist C. Randy Gallistel.[7] His postdoctoral work on oculomotor physiology examined how circuits controlling saccades may also participate in movement planning.[8]

Career and role in founding neuroeconomics

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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).

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

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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]

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

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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]

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]

• Glimcher, Paul W. (2003). Decisions, Uncertainty, and the Brain. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-07244-1.
• Camerer, Colin; Fehr, Ernst; Poldrack, Russell, eds. (2008). Neuroeconomics: Decision Making and the Brain. ISBN 978-0-12-374176-9.
• Glimcher, Paul W. (2011). Foundations of Neuroeconomic Analysis. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-974425-1.
• Camerer, Colin; Fehr, Ernst; Poldrack, Russell, eds. (2013). Neuroeconomics: Decision Making and the Brain. Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-12-416008-8.

1. ^ a b c "Paul W. Glimcher". NYU Langone Health. Retrieved 2025-07-19.
2. ^ "Renowned Researcher, Founder of Neuroeconomics Named Director of NYU Langone Health's Neuroscience Institute". NYU Langone News.
3. ^ "Renowned Researcher, Founder of Neuroeconomics Named Director of NYU Langone Health's Neuroscience Institute". PR Newswire (Press release). Retrieved 2023-07-25.
4. ^ a b "New York University - Endowed Professorships". NYU.
5. ^ a b c d "Behind the Scenes of an Audaciously Ambitious Social-Science Project". Science of Us.
6. ^ Crow, Kelly (2011-08-26). "Keeping Pace". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660.
7. ^ "NYU Shanghai Profile". NYU Shanghai. Archived from the original on 2018-02-15.
8. ^ "Paul Glimcher". Neuroeconomics in Shanghai.
9. ^ a b Platt, Michael L.; Glimcher, Paul W. (1999). "Neural correlates of decision variables in parietal cortex". Nature. 400 (6741): 233–238. Bibcode:1999Natur.400..233P. doi:10.1038/22268. PMID 10421364.
10. ^ "2003 PROSE Award Winners". PROSE Awards.
11. ^ a b "2009 Award Winners - PROSE Awards".
12. ^ Servick, Kelly (2015-10-30). "Proposed study would closely track 10,000 New Yorkers". Science. 350 (6260): 493–494. doi:10.1126/science.350.6260.493. PMID 26516261.
13. ^ 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. PMID 15473973.
14. ^ Bayer, Hannah M.; Glimcher, Paul W. (2005). "Midbrain Dopamine Neurons Encode a Quantitative Reward Prediction Error Signal". Neuron. 47 (1): 129–141. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2005.05.020. PMC 1564381. PMID 15996553.
15. ^ Kable, Joseph W.; Glimcher, Paul W. (2007). "The neural correlates of subjective value during intertemporal choice". Nature Neuroscience. 10 (12): 1625–1633. doi:10.1038/nn2007. PMC 2845395. PMID 17982449.
16. ^ Caplin, Andrew; Dean, Mark; Glimcher, Paul W.; Rutledge, Robb B. (2010). "Measuring beliefs and rewards: A neuroeconomic approach". The Quarterly Journal of Economics. 125 (3): 923–960. doi:10.1162/qjec.2010.125.3.923. PMC 4092011. PMID 25018564.
17. ^ Louie, Kenway; Khaw, Mel W.; Glimcher, Paul W. (2013). "Normalization is a general neural mechanism for context-dependent decision-making". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 110 (15): 6129–6144. Bibcode:2013PNAS..110.6139L. doi:10.1073/pnas.1217854110. PMC 3625302.
18. ^ Khaw, Mel W.; Grab, Denise A.; Livermore, Michael A.; Vossler, Christian A.; Glimcher, Paul W. (2015-07-29). "The Measurement of Subjective Value and Its Relation to Contingent Valuation and Environmental Public Goods". PLOS ONE. 10 (7) e0132842. Bibcode:2015PLoSO..1032842K. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0132842. PMC 4519262. PMID 26221734.
19. ^ "SBS Decadal Summit Speaker Bios". National Academies.
20. ^ Making the Soldier Decisive on Future Battlefields. National Academies Press. 2013-04-23. doi:10.17226/18321. ISBN 978-0-309-28453-0.
21. ^ Opportunities in Neuroscience for Future Army Applications. National Academies Press. 2009-05-11. doi:10.17226/12500. ISBN 978-0-309-12740-0. PMID 25032335.
22. ^ Bill Saporito (2013-03-04). "Stocking Up". Time.
23. ^ Adler, Jerry. "Mind Reading". Newsweek.
24. ^ Eryn Brown (2012-10-02). "Teens and risky behavior: more complicated than it seems?". Los Angeles Times.
25. ^ Tim Harford (2008-10-27). "Where economics meets neuroscience".
26. ^ Schmidt, Christian (2004-11-09). "Economie et psychologie: la nouvelle alliance".
27. ^ Budras, Corinna (2009-10-30). "Aktienhändler denken anders". Frankfurter Allgemeine.
28. ^ "The Neuroscience Behind Bad Decisions". Quanta Magazine. 2016-08-23.
29. ^ "Inside the massive plan to track the lives of 10,000 New Yorkers". New Scientist.
30. ^ "Your Data Footprint Is Affecting Your Life In Ways You Can't Even Imagine". 2016-03-15.
31. ^ Resnick, Brian (2016-08-26). "This audacious study will track 10,000 New Yorkers' every move for 20 years".
32. ^ "Compiling a Massive Index of Urban Life". CityLab.