Dr. Ziv Ben-Zion

Affiliations: School of Public Health, Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences

The Integrated Brain and Behavior Research Center (IBBRC)

Haifa Brain and Behavior Hub (HBBH);

 

Academic Background:

Dr. Ziv Ben-Zion is an Incoming Senior Lecturer (starting October 2025) at the School of Public Health, Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences, University of Haifa. He earned his B.Sc. in Biology, Psychology, and Neuroscience (Summa Cum Laude, 2015) and his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Tel Aviv University (2020) under the supervision of Prof. Talma Hendler. His doctoral research focused on identifying neural and cognitive moderators of PTSD development and recovery, linking clinical symptoms with cognitive function and neural alterations. These findings advanced the understanding of traumatic stress responses, PTSD pathogenesis, and resilience mechanisms. During his postdoctoral training at Yale University, Dr. Ben-Zion worked with the Decision Neuroscience Lab (Prof. Ifat Levy) and the PTSD Research & Treatment Lab (Prof. Ilan Harpaz-Rotem). He expanded his research into reinforcement learning, decision-making, behavioral modeling, computational psychiatry, and large language models (LLMs). Dr. Ben-Zion’s contributions have been recognized with several prestigious awards, including the Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellowship, the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) Career Development Leadership Award, and Yale’s nomination for the Blavatnik Regional Award for Young Scientists. He has published over 30 peer-reviewed papers, with half as first author, in leading journals such as The American Journal of Psychiatry, Molecular Psychiatry, and Annual Review of Psychology. His research has been presented at over 40 national and international conferences, highlighting his commitment to advancing science and fostering global collaborations.

 

Research Interests:

Dr. Ben-Zion’s research explores the neurocognitive mechanisms of stress vulnerability and resilience, with the long-term goal of developing personalized treatments for stress- and anxiety-related disorders, particularly PTSD. His multidisciplinary approach integrates biology, psychology, and neuroscience, using behavioral, cognitive, physiological, and neural responses to naturalistic experimental manipulations in both healthy and clinical populations. His work leverages advanced statistical and computational methodologies, emphasizing transparency, reproducibility, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

His current research is structured around three key directions:

  1. Neural computations of stress, anxiety, and decision-making: Investigating how fundamental neural computations (e.g., value, uncertainty) shape learning, decision-making, and memory in different domains (e.g., reward and punishment processing) and their associations with stress- and anxiety-related symptoms.
  2. Process-based subtyping of PTSD: Developing objective, neurobehavioral markers to distinguish two PTSD subtypes based on distinct neurobiological mechanisms. This line of research aims to enhance clinical diagnosis and improve treatment outcomes.
  3. Computational psychiatry and AI: Exploring how large language models (e.g., OpenAI’s ChatGPT) learn and make decisions, leveraging AI-based frameworks to gain insights into human cognition and behavior.

 

Home Page: https://campuspress.yale.edu/zivbenzion/