Research interests
RESEARCH INTERESTS
My goal is understanding how humans learn to make decisions at the behavioral, computational and neural levels. I am mainly (but not only!) interested in situations when decisions are based on past experience (a.k.a. reinforcement learning) .
In the last few years I mainly worked two computational hypotheses concerning human reinforcement learning:
1. value is learned in a relative scale
2. value is learned in a biased manner
In addition to extending the "relative value" and the "learning bias" frameworks, new lines of research in my team investigate social learning , the experience/description gap and, more recently, the intersection between cognitive science and artificial intelligence. I also enjoy questioning the epistemological and methodological foundations of decision-making, neuroeconomics and cognitive science research.
In my "spare time", I am writing a book on "decision making" with Valentin Wyart for Oxford University Press (a "very short introduction" that is proving not so quickly written as originally thought...).
KEY PUBLICATIONS
Bavard S & Palminteri S. The functional form of value normalization in human reinforcement learning. eLife (2023).
Garcia B, Bourgeois-Gironde S, Lebreton M and Palminteri S. Experiential values are underweighted in decisions involving symbolic options. Nature Human Behaviour (2023).
Palminteri S & Lebreton M. The computational roots of positivity and confirmation biases in reinforcement-learning. TICS (2022). INSERM press release
Palminteri S & Lebreton M. Context-dependent outcome encoding in human reinforcement learning. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences (2021)
Bavard S, Rustichini A, Palminteri S. Two sides of the same coin: beneficial and detrimental consequences of range adaptation in human reinforcement learning. Science Advances (2021). ENS press release
Garcia B, Cerrotti F, Palminteri S. The description-experience gap: a challenge for the neuroeconomics of decision-making under uncertainty. Philosophical Transactions B (2021).
Najar A, Bonnet E, Bahador B, Palminteri S. The actions of others act as a pseudo-reward to drive imitation in the context of social reinforcement learning. Plos Biology (2020). INSERM press release.
*Chambon V, *Théro H, Vidal M, Vandendriesch H, Haggard P, Palminteri S. Information about action outcomes differentially affects learning from self-determined versus imposed choices. Nature Human Behaviour (2020). ENS press release
Lebreton M, Bavard S, Daunizeau J, Palminteri S. Assessing inter-individual differences with task-related functional neuroimaging. Nature Human Behaviour (2019).
Lefebvre G, Nioche A, Bourgeois-Gironde S, Palminteri S. Contrasting temporal difference and opportunity cost reinforcement learning in an empirical money-emergence paradigm. PNAS (2018). CNRS press release.
*Bavard S, *Lebreton M, Khamassi M, Coricelli G, Palminteri S. Reference-point centering and range-adaptation enhance human reinforcement learning at the cost of irrational preferences. Nature Communications (2018). INSERM press release.
Lefebvre G, Lebreton M, Meyniel F, Bourgeois-Gironde S, Palminteri S. Behavioural and neural characterization of optimistic reinforcement learning. Nature Human Behaviour (2017). INSERM press release .
*Palminteri S, *Wyart V, Koechlin E. The importance of falsification in computational cognitive modeling. TICS (2017).
Palminteri S, Khamassi M, Joffily M, Coricelli G. Contextual modulation of value signals in reward and punishment learning. Nature Communications (2015). CNRS press release.
Palminteri S, Justo D, Jauffret C, Pavlicek B, Dauta A, Delmaire C, Czernecki V, Karachi K, Capelle L, Durr A, Pessiglione M. Critical roles for anterior insula and dorsal striatum in punishment-based avoidance learning. Neuron (2012). INSERM press release.
Palminteri S, Lebreton M, Worbe Y, Hartmann A, Vidailhet M, Grabli D, Pessiglione M. Dopamine-dependent reinforcement of motor skill learning: evidence from Tourette’s syndrome. Brain (2011). INSERM press release .
Palminteri S, Lebreton M, Worbe Y, Grabli D, Hartmann A, Pessiglione M. Pharmacological modulation ofsubliminal learning in Parkinson's and Tourette's syndromes. PNAS (2009).