Prof. Nitzan Censor

Prof. Censor received his M.Sc. in Physics and Ph.D. in Neurobiology from The Weizmann Institute of Science, studying the dynamics of human visual perception across time with Prof. Dov Sagi. He then completed his post-doctoral training at The National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland with Dr. Leonardo Cohen, studying motor learning and memory in health and disease using non-invasive brain stimulation. Prof. Censor is a faculty member at the School of Psychological Sciences and Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University.

Our research provides a detailed look at the core intersection of human brain and behavior, utilizing a multimodal approach combining behavioral psychophysics, non-invasive brain stimulation, virtual reality, and neuroimaging. This approach enables us to establish a cause-and-effect link between changes in human behavior and their underlying brain mechanisms.

Specifically, we have been leveraging mechanisms identified at the synaptic-level showing that brief reactivations of existing memories open discrete time windows for plasticity – and apply them to induce human brain plasticity at the systems-level and impact behavior: enhancing visual perception and motor action, or downregulating negative memories.

As such, our findings carry significant implications for daily life function in health and disease, contributing to the development of strategies geared to enhance performance and memory when beneficial, and downregulate maladaptive consequences of negative memories.

See lab website : http://www.censorlab.tau.ac.il/?page_id=13609