Paul Glimcher
American neuroscientist, psychologist, and economist (born 1961)
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Through Massachusetts
Glimcher co-founded NYU's Institute for the Study of Decision Making (ISDM) and helped establish the Center for Neuroeconomics, which later became ISDM. He also helped launch the HUMAN Project, a longitudinal research initiative, and co-founded Datacubed Health, a software company supporting behavioral and clinical research.
Early life and education
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. 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. His postdoctoral work on oculomotor physiology examined how circuits controlling saccades may also participate in movement planning.
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Career and role in founding neuroeconomics
Glimcher joined NYU's Center for Neural Science in 1994. In 2004 he founded NYU's Center for Neuroeconomics (later ISDM), and in 2010 was named to the Silver Endowed Chair in Neural Science. 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. His book Decisions, Uncertainty and the Brain (MIT Press, 2003) helped popularize the term "neuroeconomics" and received a PROSE Award.
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. He later published Foundations of Neuroeconomic Analysis (Oxford, 2011).
The HUMAN Project
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. The study's aims and potential were discussed across scientific and policy venues.
Datacubed Health LLC
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.
Research
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). - Tests linking internal value representations to mixed-strategy equilibria in strategic choice (posterior parietal correlates). - Quantitative tests of dopamine reward prediction error signals in midbrain neurons. - Identification of subjective value signals in human medial prefrontal cortex during intertemporal choice. - Axiomatic approaches to measuring beliefs and rewards in neuroeconomic data. - Context-dependent "normalization" as a general neural mechanism for value coding and choice.
His work has also discussed applications to valuation of public goods using fMRI measures of subjective value.
Honors and other work
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. His textbooks and edited volumes have received PROSE Awards.
Popular press
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.
Books
- 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.