John P. O'Doherty
John P. O'Doherty
Fletcher Jones Professor of Decision Neuroscience
B.A., University of Dublin, Trinity College, 1996; D.Phil., University of Oxford, 2000. Assistant Professor, Caltech, 2004-07; Associate Professor, 2007-09; Professor, 2009-; Fletcher Jones Professor, 2021-; Director, Caltech Brain Imaging Center, 2013-17.
Profile
John P. O'Doherty studies the neural basis of reward-related learning and decision making, complex computational problems that have come to be solved by the brain over the course of evolution. He's interested in how the human brain can learn from experience in order to make decisions that maximize future rewards and minimize future costs.
Research Summary
Neural Basis of Reward and Reward-Related Learning; Neuroimaging; Conditioning and Associative Learning; Taste and Olfaction; Affective Neuroscience
Caltech Affiliations
Featured News
Where Perseverance Meets Discovery
November 21, 2025
Solving big problems takes a little perseverance. Or, sometimes, a lot. On the power of cathedral-building in science.
What Makes Us Persist Toward Long-Term Goals?
July 16, 2025
Graduate student Sneha Aenugu and John O'Doherty have tested how humans juggle different long-term goals, finding that we tend to over-persist in long-term goals even when switching goals might be more favorable.
How Different Learning Modes May Explain Problem Gambling
Read more news
December 18, 2024
An overreliance on slow as opposed to fast learning may explain why problem gamblers will persist with losing strategies well after recreational gamblers have given up.