Yoav Livneh

Department of Brain Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel.

Website

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Title

Brain-body interactions: sensations and predictions in the insular cortex

Biosketch

Yoav studied Psychology and Biology for his BSc at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He initially planned to be a psychotherapist, but soon fell in love with Neurobiology. He then did his PhD in Neurobiology at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel with Prof. Adi Mizrahi. During his PhD he investigated the development and plasticity of olfactory adult-born neurons. His studies ranged from single synapses to cellular sensory physiology.

For his postdoctoral research, Yoav joined the labs of Profs. Mark Andermann and Brad Lowell at the Endocrinology Department of BIDMC of Harvard Medical School. There he investigated interoception of physiological needs such as hunger and thirst, and how they bias our perception of sensory cues in our environment.

Yoav started his research group at the Weizmann Institute in Israel in 2020. His lab seeks to understand brain-body communication, and its role in regulating diverse behaviors. They do so by studying cortical computations in insular cortex and how they bidirectionally relate to changes in bodily physiology. His lab focuses on prioritization of different physiological needs, perception of internal sensations, and the causal role of cortical computations in regulating bodily physiology.