The Addiction & Decision Neuroscience Laboratory at Rutgers University, directed by Dr. Anna Konova, studies motivation, decision making, and addiction. We are  affiliated with the Department of Psychiatry, the University Behavioral Health Care (UBHC), and the Brain Health Institute (BHI) at Rutgers University - New Brunswick. We also take an active part in the Rutgers-Princeton Center for Computational Cognitive Neuro-Psychiatry and the Latent Cause Inference Conte Center. You can find out more about who we are here, and what we do here. If you are interested in joining our team or participating in a research study, go here. See below for recent lab news and get in touch!

03/31/25  We said goodbye to Zahra as she heads off to new adventures in science, art, and science & art! 🧠 We also formally welcomed a new MD/PhD student, Ugne. Welcome Ugne!

02/11/25  NEW PAPER! How does the brain support cannabis use and snack food decisions, and how does that change when primed with tempting cues?

12/10/24  Congrats to Anna on receiving the Rutgers BHI Early Career Faculty “Rising Star” award! 🎉

12/02/24  NEW PAPER! Is cognitive effort more costly in depression?

10/29/24  A big belated congratulations to Emma on receiving a predoc NRSA (NIDA F31) award! 🎉 Read more about Emma's research here.

09/20/24  With our colleagues at the Rutgers-Princeton CCNP, we are excited to launch a new comprehensive investigation of latent cause inference - a mental computation that helps us draw boundaries between our experiences as stemming from different underlying rules or causes - and its role in mental health. Read more about this initiative here and here.

08/09/24  We said see-you-around in seaside-style to our favorite barista and research assistant extraordinaire, Josh, as he heads off to grad school!! Luckily, he will only move a desk or two over 🤩

06/14/24  NEW PAPER! Do economic preferences differ between cultures when informed by experience vs. by description?

06/06/24  NEW PAPER! Can brain stimulation change people's self-reported propensity to take risks? Congrats to Francesca on her first first-author paper AND on receiving a predoc NRSA (NIDA F31) award! 🎉

05/31/24  We said an artful goodbye to our incredible project manager and lab MVP, Julia, as she heads off to NYC to start a new adventure! We wish this rockstar the best of luck in this new phase and will miss her sage advice dearly ✨ We also welcomed a new lab member, Hana, who will help take over the reigns. We look forward to working with you, Hana!

01/17/24  NEW PAPER! Can a latent-cause framework, in which individuals learn the latent (hidden) causes that bind their experiences, help explain key dynamic addiction phenomena like craving and relapse?

12/20/23  NEW PAPER! How does our perception of value change depending on the context, and how does recent drug use impact this process?

10/25/23  NEW PAPER! How does the brain represent the subjective experience of reward prediction errors and how does cocaine addiction impact this critical computation?

07/03/23  NEW PAPER! What is the role of social connection in opioid use disorder and treatment engagement? Congrats to Emma on doing a deep dive into this important topic and on her first first-author paper!

05/12/23  We said a proper NY (well Brooklyn) goodbye to our postdoc and grad student mentor extraordinaire, Maëlle, as she heads to start as an associate investigator at LIBR! Toutes nos félicitations, Maëlle!! We also saw Lauren off to grad school, and will miss her clinical insights dearly! Lastly, congrats to Syed on receiving the Henry Rutgers Thesis Award 🎊 

03/06/23  NEW PAPER! Commentary on exciting recent efforts to derive generalizable and interpretable markers of cannabis use, craving, and other substance use outcomes from fMRI data.

02/10/23  We are grateful to receive a new grant from the New Jersey Health Foundation with Laura Bustamante (WUSTL) and Jon Cohen (Princeton) to examine the neurobiological and theoretical foundations of cognitive control symptoms of depression and the role of motivation to exert control!

09/03/22  We said goodbye to our great colleague and resident stats guru, Ananya, as he heads off to grad school. We are so proud and can't wait to see all of the incredible work he will do in this next phase!! 🤜 Luckily, we also welcomed (officially) two new lab members, Francesca & Sergej, who will take over the reigns. We look forward to working with you both! Lastly, congrats to Anna on receiving the Chancellor's Basic Science Award 🎊 

05/19/22  NEW PAPER! How much do people's preferences for risk and delay vary across days and 'in the wild'? Huge congrats to Manny on his first PhD paper! Also congrats to Kathryn and Maëlle on their travel awards from the College on Problems of Drug Dependence (CPDD) and Multidisciplinary Conference on Reinforcement Learning & Decision Making (RLDM), respectively. We are excited for you to present your work in June!

04/12/22  NEW PAPER! What are the key barriers and possible solutions for clinical translation of computational models of cognition and affect?

12/16/21  NEW PAPER! What is craving and how does it operate to bias decisions toward drugs like opioids in addiction?

08/10/21  NEW PAPER! Can we use 'dense fMRI neuroimaging' to better capture within-person variability and clinical trajectory in psychiatric disorders? Congrats also to Emma on being selected as a NJ Acts TL1 Fellow to support her thesis work on social connection and craving circuits!!

08/03/21  NEW PAPER! How does impulsivity and risk-taking relate to real-world healthcare utilization among veterans?

08/01/21  We said a NY/NJ goodbye to our amazing lab manager and founding lab member, Darla, as she heads off to grad school! We wish this rockstar the best of luck in this new phase and will miss her dearly ✨ We also welcomed two new lab members, Julia & Sahar, who will take over the reigns. We look forward to working with you both!

05/20/21  Lab hike celebrating science and vaccines! The ADN lab is very grateful to receive a NIDA grant to study how optimism relates to decision-making under uncertainty in addiction and for the exciting science that is to come!! Congrats also to Manny for receiving the Primm-Singleton Award from the College on Problems of Drug Dependence (CPDD).  🎉

12/18/20  A nice NIDA Notes write up about our work rounds out the year!

11/09/20  NEW PAPER! Computational theory-driven studies of reinforcement learning and decision-making in addiction: what have we learned?

08/28/20  NEW PAPER! Can neuromelanin-sensitive MRI be used as a tool to capture dopaminergic dysfunction in addiction?

08/22/20  ¡Cluster update! It has been a busy albeit strange summer for all. Even so, we have a lot to celebrate. Congrats to Kathryn on her grant award from the Center for Alcohol & Substance Use Studies on stress, addiction, and the LC-NE system, and her talk on this project at the 2020 College on Problems of Drug Dependence (CPDD) conference. Also a very big congrats to Manny for being selected as a TRACC-RU fellow in the NIH/NIDA-sponsored training program on translational addiction science. Finally, although we said goodbye to RAs Gabriela and Robert, we welcomed new MD student researcher Josh!

05/08/20  NEW PAPER! How does acute stress interact with trait impulsivity to influence the way people learn from reward?

01/13/20  Welcome new postdoc Maëlle!! Also congrats to Adaugo who successfully defended her honors thesis and will be heading off to medical school!

12/08/19  NEW PAPER! Can computational markers of  decision-making capture cognitive processes with clinical utility for detecting opioid reuse vulnerability?

06/12/19  Welcome new RAs Gabriela, Joany, Rhea, and Robert!! Also a sad goodbye to Ming who successfully defended his thesis and will start a new position at Amazon. Congrats and best of luck Ming!

03/23/19  NEW PAPER! How do delusional beliefs shape the way people sample and integrate information?

12/31/18  NEW PAPER! Does research in psychiatry need to consider the relationship between risk and time preferences in studies of choice impulsivity?

11/07/18  NEW PAPER! Can the neuroscience of how we learn to extinguish appetitive and drug cue responses help us understand addictive behavior?

09/16/18  With our collaborators at NYU, Data Cubed, and Universidad del Rosario, we joined the RWJF challenge to address the opioid epidemic using digital technologies and decision neuroscience. Our work was recently showcased at Health 2.0 held Sept. 16-17 in Santa Clara, CA. Check out our concept in this video!

09/07/18  We are open for business!