I'm a cognitive neuroscientist interested in how learning during periods of heightened brain plasticity shapes mental health. My work focuses on two contexts where learning becomes unusually flexible: development and the effects of psychedelics. To study these shifts, I combine computational models of reinforcement learning with behavioural tasks and real-world environments, alongside brain imaging methods such as EEG and fMRI. This approach allows me to examine learning processes across different mechanistic levels.

Please see my Research Staff Profile for more details.

Find out more about my research

https://noamgoldway.cargo.site/

Key publications

• Goldway et al., 2023. Computational mechanisms of addiction and anxiety: A developmental perspective. Biological Psychiatry.
• Goldway et al., 2024. Adolescents flexibly adapt action selection based on controllability inferences. Learning and Memory.
• Goldway et al., 2025. The analgesic and dissociative properties of ketamine are separate and correspond to distinct neural mechanisms. 
• Goldway et al., 2019. Process-based framework for precise neuromodulation. Nature Human Behaviour.
• Goldway et al, 2025. Brain state dynamics in ketamine-induced dissociation resemble those in PTSD. Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science. 

Key collaborators

• Professor Catherine A. Hartley, New York University, Department of Psychology
• Professor Yael Niv, Princeton University, Princeton Neuroscience Institute
• Professor Talma Hendler, Tel Aviv University, Sagol School of Neuroscience
• Dr David B. Yaden, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research