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Caltech
FULL LIST OF PUBLICATIONS (click on the title to download pdf)
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Selected Papers (Full list below)
Kim, J., Tashjian, S.M., and Mobbs, D. (2024). The human hypothalamus coordinates switching between different survival actions. PLoS Biology.
Pandita, S., Garg, K., Zhang, J., Mobbs, D. (2024). Three Roots of Online Toxicity: Disembodiment, Accountability, and Disinhibition. Trends in Cognitive Science.
Qi, S., Cross, L., Wise, T., Fung, B., Sui, X., O’Doherty, J., and Mobbs, D. (2024). The role of the medial prefrontal cortex in margin of safety calculations. Journal of Neuroscience.
Wise, T., Charpentiar, C. Dayan, P., Mobbs, D. (2023). Interactive cognitive maps support flexible behavior under threat. Cell Reports. 42 (8). pdf
Tashjian, S.M., Wise, T., Mobbs, D. (2022). Increased model-based control for acquiring protection. PLoS-Computational Biology. 18 (12), e1010805. pdf
Zbozinek, T., Perez, O., Wise, T., Fanselow, M., and Mobbs, D. (2022). Ambiguity Drives Higher-Order Pavlovian Learning. PLoS-Computational Biology. 18(9) e1010410. pdf
Silston, B., Wise, T., Qi, S., Sui, X., Dayan, P., and Mobbs, D. (2021). Neural encoding of socially adjusted value during competitive and hazardous foraging. Nature Communications. 12 (1) 1-11. pdf.
Mobbs, D., Wise, T., Suthana, N., Guzman, N., Kriegeskorte, N., Leibo, J., (2021). The Promises and Challenges of Human Computational Ethology. Neuron. 109; 14; 2224-2238.
Tashjian, S.M., Zbozinek, T., Mobbs, D. (2021). A Decision Architecture for Safety Computations. Trends in Cognitive Science. 25; 5; 342-354.
Tedeschi, E., Buyalskaya, A., Armand, S., Silston, B., and Mobbs, D. (2021) Fear in groups: Increasing group size reduces perception of danger. Emotion. 21(7): 1499-1510.
Mobbs, D., Headley, D., *Ding, W., Dayan, P. (2020). Space, Time, and Fear: Survival Computations Along Defensive Circuits. 24, 228-24; Trends in Cognitive Science. 24; 3; 228-241. Cover Image.
Mobbs, D, Adolphs, R., Feldman-Barrett, L. Faneslow, M., LeDoux, J., Ressler, K., and Tye, K. (2019). Viewpoint: Approaches to defining and investigating fear. Nature Neuroscience. 22, 1205-1216. Republished in Scientific American.
Fung, B., Qi, S., Hassabis, D., Daw, N., Mobbs, D. (2019). Slow escape decisions are swayed by trait anxiety. Nature: Human Behavior. 3, 702-708. Perspective by Neil McNaughton. pdf
*Qi S, *Footer O, Camerer CF, Mobbs D. (2018) A Collaborator's Reputation Can Bias Decisions and Anxiety under Uncertainty. J Neurosci. 2018 Feb 28;38(9):2262-2269. pdf
*Qi, S., Hassabis, D., *Sun, J., Guo, F., Daw, N., and Mobbs, D. (2018). How Cognitive and Reactive Fear Circuits Optimize Escape Decisions in Humans. PNAS. 115 (12), 3186-3191.
Mobbs, D, Trimmer, P., Blumstein, D.T., Dayan, P. (2018). Foraging for foundations in decision neuroscience: Insights from ethology. Nature Reviews: Neuroscience. 19, 419-427. Cover Image.
Mobbs, D., and Kim J.J. (2015). Neuroethological studies of fear and risky decision-making in rat and humans. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences. 5, 8-15. Cover Image.
Mobbs, D., Yu, R., Rowe, J., Eich, H., Feldmanhall, O., Dalgleish, T. (2010). Neural activity associated with monitoring the oscillating threat value of a Tarantula. PNAS. 107: 20582-6. Top 10 PNAS papers of 2010.
Mobbs, D., Petrovic, P., Marchant, J., Hassabis, D., Seymour, B., Weiskopf, N., Dolan, R.J., Frith, C.D (2007). When Fear is Near: Threat Imminence Elicits Prefrontal - Periaqueductal Grey Shifts in Humans. Science. 317; 1079-1083. Perspective by Steve Maren.
Pre-Prints
94. Wise, T., Sookud, S., Michelini, G., Mobbs , D. (preprint). Transdiagnostic mental health symptom dimensions predict use of flexible model-based inference in complex environments.
93. Agapiou et al., (PrePrint) Melting Pot 2.0
92. Wise, T., Zbozinek, T., Michelini, G., Hagan, C.C., Mobbs, D. (Pre-print). Development and validation of the Avoidance of Respiratory Viral Infection Scale (ARVIS).
Full List
90. Qi, S., Cross, L., Wise, T., Fung, B., Sui, X., O’Doherty, J., and Mobbs, D. (2024). The role of the medial prefrontal cortex in margin of safety calculations. Journal of Neuroscience.
89. Kim, J., Tashjian, S.M., and Mobbs, D. (2024). The human hypothalamus coordinates switching between different survival actions. PLoS Biology.
88. Pandita, S., Garg, K., Zhang, J., Mobbs, D. (2024). Three Roots of Online Toxicity: Disembodiment, Accountability, and Disinhibition. Trends in Cognitive Science.
87. Ruggeri et al., (2024). Evaluating expectations from social and behavioral science about COVID-19 and lessons for the next pandemic. Nature, 625 (7993), 134-147.
86. Wise, T., Charpentiar, C. Dayan, P., Mobbs, D. (2023). Interactive cognitive maps support flexible behavior under threat. Cell Reports. 42 (8).
85. Grogans, S.E., et al.,(2023) The Nature and Neurobiology of Fear and Anxiety: State of the Science and Opportunities for Accelerating Discovery. pdf
83. Zbozinek, T., Perez, O.,Wise, T., Fanselow, M., and Mobbs, D. (2022). Ambiguity Drives Higher-Order Pavlovian Learning. PLoS-Computational Biology.
81. *Mobbs, D. and *Tashjian, S., (2022) Ten Simple Rules for unbiased teaching. PLOS Computational Biology.*Equal Authors
80. Pang, L., Li, H., Liu, Q., Luob, Y., Mobbs, D., Wu, H., (in press) Resting state functional connectivity of social brain regions predicts motivated dishonesty. Neuroimage.
79. Wu, H., Fung, B., and Mobbs, D. (Pre-print) Interactive mentalization: the development and validation of the triadic mentalization questionnaire (TMQ). Frontiers in Psychology.
78. Wise, T., Zbozinek, T., Charpentiar, C. Michelini, G. Hagan, C.C., Mobbs, D. (2022). Ambiguity aversion predicts risky behavior during COVID-19. Emotion.
77. Silston, B., Wise, T., Qi, S., Sui, X., Dayan, P., and Mobbs, D. (2021). Neural encoding of preferred patch value during competitive and hazardous foraging. Nature Communications.
76. Mobbs, D., Wise, T., Suthana, N., Guzman, N., Kriegeskorte, N., Leibo, J., (2021). The Promises and Challenges of Human Computational Ethology. Neuron.
75. Tashjian, S.M., Fedrigo, V., Molapour, T., Mobbs, D., Camerer, C.F. (2021). Contextual and endogenous effects on physiology during a haunted house fear induction. Psychological Science.
74. Tashjian, S.M., *Zbozinek, T., Mobbs, D. (2021). A Decision Architecture for Safety Computations. Trends in Cognitive Science.
73 Tedeschi, E., *Buyalskaya, A., Armand, S., Silston, B., and Mobbs, D. (2021) Risk dilutes as the group size increases. Emotion.
72. Zbozinek TD, Charpentier CJ, *Qi S, Mobbs D. (2022). Economic decisions with ambiguous outcome magnitudes vary with low and high stakes but not trait anxiety or depression. Computational Psychiatry.
71. Zbozinek TD, Wise T, Perez OD, Qi S, Fanselow M, Mobbs D. (2022). Pavlovian occasion setting in human fear and appetitive conditioning: Effects of trait anxiety and trait depression. Behaviour Research and Therapy.
70. Malapour, T., Hagan, C.C., Wu, H., Silston, B., Ramstead, M., Friston, K., Mobbs, D, (2021). Seven computations of the social brain. Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.
69. Wise, T., Zbozinek, T., Michelini, G., Hagan, C.C., Mobbs, D. (2020). Longitudinal changes in perceptions of risk and protective behavior during the first week of the COVID-19 pandemic in the USA.
68. Van Bavel, J. J., Baicker, K., Boggio, P. S., Capraro, V., Cichocka, A., Cikara, M., Crockett, M. J., Crum, A. J., Douglas, K. M., Druckman, J. N. Drury, J., Dube, O., Ellemers, N., Finkel, E. J., Fowler, J. H., Gelfand, M., Han, S., Haslam, S. A., Jetten, J., Kitayama, S., Mobbs, D., Napper, L. E., Packer, D. J., Pennycook, G., Peters, E., Petty, R. E., Rand, D. G., Reicher, S. D., Schnall, S., Shariff, A., Skitka, L. J., Smith, S. S., Sunstein, C. R., Tabri, N., Tucker, J. A., van der Linden, S., Van Lange, P. A. M., Weeden, K. A., Wohl, M. J. A., Zaki, J., Zion, S. & Willer, R. (in press). Using social and behavioural science to support COVID-19 pandemic response. Nature Human Behavior.
67. Mobbs, D., Headley, D., *Ding, W., Dayan, P. (2020). Space, Time, and Fear: Survival Computations Along Defensive Circuits. Trends in Cognitive Science.
66. Wu, H., Liu, X., Hagan, C.C. and Mobbs, D. (2020). Mentalizing in Social InterAction. A four-component model. Special issue on understanding other minds. Cortex.
65. Liu, C., Pu, M.,Lian, W., Hu, J., Mobbs, D., Yu, R. (2020). Conscious awareness differentially shapes analgesic and hyperalgesic pain responses. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
64. Zheng, L, Mobbs, D., Yu, R., (2020). Foreign language feedback induces Gambler’s Fallacy Effects. Neuropsychologia. 136; 107290
63. Mobbs, D, Adolphs, R., Feldman-Barrett, L. Faneslow, M., LeDoux, J., Ressler, K., and Tye, K. (2019). Viewpoint: Approaches to defining and investigating fear. Nature Neuroscience.
62. Fung, B., Qi, S., Hassabis, D., Daw, N., Mobbs, D. (In Press). Slow escape decisions are swayed by trait anxiety. Nature: Human Behavior.
61. Mobbs, D, Trimmer, P., Blumstein, D.T., Dayan, P. (2018). Foraging for foundations in decision neuroscience: Insights from ethology. Nature Reviews, Neuroscience. 19, 419-427.
60. Silston, B., Bassett, D., and Mobbs, D. (2018). How dynamic brain networks tune social behavior in real time. Current Directions in Psychological Science.
59. Mobbs, D. and LeDoux, J. L. (2018). Editorial: Survival Behaviors and Circuits. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences.
58. Stretton, J., Walsh, N., Mobbs, D., Schweizer, S., van Harmelen, A.L., Lombardo, M., Goodyer, I., Dalgleish, T. (2018). How biopsychosocial psychiatric risk shapes behavioral and neural responses to social evaluation in adolescence. PsyArXiv.
57. Qi, S., Hassabis, D., Sun, J., Guo, F., Daw, N., and Mobbs, D. (2018). How Cognitive and Reactive Fear Circuits Optimize Escape Decisions in Humans. PNAS. 115 (12), 3186-3191.
56. Qi, S., Footer, O., Camerer, C., and Mobbs, D. (2018). A collaborator’s reputation can bias decisions and anxiety under uncertainty. Journal of Neuroscience. 38 (9), 2262-2269.
55. Mobbs, D. (2018). The ethological deconstruction of fear(s). Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences. 24, 32-37.
54. Wu, H., Cao, J, Li, Y., Feng, C., Mobbs, D. (2018). The pursuit of social acceptance: Aberrant conformity in social anxiety disorder. Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.
53. Silston, B., and Mobbs, D (2018). Detecting and responding threats in the natural world. Psychology Inquiry.
52. Prevost, C., Lau, H., and Mobbs, D. (2018). Social discouragement induces motivation and facilitates performance. Cerebral Cortex.
51. Yao, S., Qi, S., Kendrick, K.M. and Mobbs, D. (2018). Attentional Set to Safety recruits the ventromedial PFC. Scientific Reports. 8, 15395.
50. Corr, P., and Mobbs, D. (2018) Editorial – Personality Neuroscience: From epiphenomenon to biologically important phenomena. Personality Neuroscience. Vol 1: e1, 1–4.
49. Mobbs, D., (2018). What can the social emotions of dogs teach us about human emotions? Animal Sentience 3 (22), 5
48. Shu, J. Hassel, S., Weber, J., Ochsner, K.N., and Mobbs, D. (2017). A Role for Empathy in the Experience of Vicarious Anxiety. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
47. Camerer, C., and Mobbs, D. (2017). Differences in brain activity and behavior during hypothetical and real choices. Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
46. Dalgleish, T. Walsh, N., Mobbs, D., Stretton, J., Lombardo, M., Dunn, B., Dunn, V., Schweizer, S., Goodyer, I.M. (2017). Shared neural circuitry supports processing of social pain and social gain. Scientific Reports.
45. Koizumi, A., Mobbs, D., Lau, H. (2016). Is fear perception special? Evidence at the decision-making and metacognitive levels. Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.
44. FeldmanHall, O., Dalgleish, T., Evans, D., Navrady, L., Tedeschi, E., Mobbs, D. (2016). Moral Chivalry: The interactive effect of gender and moral orientation on altruistic choice. Social Psychological and Personality Science.
43, Perkins, A., Arnone, D., Smallwood, J., and Mobbs, D. (2015). A reply to Pickering, Smillie and De Young. Trends in Cognitive Science.
42. Perkins, A., Arnone, D., Smallwood, J., and Mobbs, D. (2015). Thinking too much: Self-generated thought as the engine of neuroticism. Trends in Cognitive Science.
41. Mobbs, D and Kim J. (2015). Neuroethological studies of fear and risky decision-making in rat and humans. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences.
40. Prevost, C., Bolger, N. and Mobbs, D. (2016). Associative self-anchoring interacts with obtainability of chosen objects. Frontiers in Psychology. 6:2012
39. Mobbs, D., Hagan, C.C. Dalgleish, T. Stilson, B., & Prevost, C. (2015). The Ecology of Human Fear: Survival Optimization and the Nervous System. Frontiers in Neuroscience: Evolutionary Psychology and Neuroscience
38. Mobbs,D., Hagan, C.C., Yu, R., Calder, A.J., FeldmanHall, O. Dalgleish, T. (2015). Reflected Glory and Failure: The role of the medial prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum in Self vs. Other’s Advice-Giving Outcomes. Social, Cognitive and Affect Neuroscience
37. Tedeschi, E. Weber, J., Prevost, C., Mischel, W., and Mobbs, D. (2015). Inferences of others’ competence reduces anticipation of pain when under threat. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
36. FeldmanHall, O., Dalgleish, T., Evans, D., Mobbs, D (2015). Empathic Concern Drives Costly Altruism. Neuroimage.
35. FeldmanHall, O, and Mobbs, D., (2015) A Neural Network for Moral Decision Making. In A.W. Toga, & M. D. Lieberman (eds.) Brain Mapping: An Encyclopedic Reference. Elsevier: Oxford.
34. Silston, B. and Mobbs, D (2014). Dopey Dopamine: High tonic results in ironic performance. Trends in Cognitive Science (spotlight).
33. Yu, R., Mobbs, D. Rowe, J., Seymour, B.J. Calder, A.J., (2014). The Neural Signature of Escalating Frustration in Humans. Cortex.
32. Yu, R., Calder, A.J., Mobbs, D. (2014) Overlapping and distinct representations of advantageous and disadvantageous inequality. Human Brain Mapping.
31. *Mobbs, D.,Hassabis, D. Yu, R., Chu, C., Rushworth, M., Boorman, E., Dalgleish, T. (2013). Foraging under competition: The neural basis of input matching in humans. Journal of Neuroscience. *Equal Authors
30.Schweizer, S., Grahn, J., Hampshire, A., Mobbs, D & Dalgleish, T. (2013). The neural substrates underlying cognitive gains in working memory and transfer effects onto the cognitive control of emotions. Journal of Neuroscience.
29. FeldmanHall, O. Mobbs, D., Dalgleish, T. (2013). Deconstructing the Brain’s Moral Network: Dissociable Functionality between the Temporoparietal Junction and Ventro-Medial Prefrontal Cortex". Social, Cognitive and Affect Neuroscience.
28. FeldmanHall, O., Dalgleish, T. Mobbs, D. (2013). Alexithymia decreases altruism in real social decisions. Cortex
27. FeldmanHall, O., Dalgleish, T. Thompson, R., Evans, D., Schweizer, S., Mobbs, D. (2012). Differential Neural Circuitry and Self-Interest in Real versus Hypothetical Moral Decisions. Social, Cognitive and Affect Neuroscience. 7 (7): 743-751. link
26. Feldmanhall, O., Mobbs, D. & Dalgleish, T. (2012). What we say and what we do: The relationship between real and hypothetical moral choices. Cognition. 123(3), 434-441.
25. Mobbs, D (2012). Reply to Greyson et al. (2012). There is nothing paranormal about near-death experiences. Trends in Cognitive Science.
24. Mobbs, D., Watt, C. (2011). There is nothing paranormal about near-death experiences: how neuroscience can explain seeing bright lights, meeting the dead, or being convinced you are one of them. Trends in Cognitive Science.
23. Persaud, N., Davidson, M., Maniscalco, B., Mobbs, D., Passingham, R.E., Cowey, A., Lau, H.C., (2011). Awareness-related activity in prefrontal and parietal cortices reflects more than just superior visual performance capacity. Neuroimage.
22. Mobbs, D., Yu, R. Rowe, J.B., Eich, H., FeldmanHall, O., Dalgleish, T. (2010) Neural activity associated with monitoring the oscillating threat value of a Tarantula. Proc Natl Acad Sci. USA.
21. Mobbs, D., McFarland, W. (2010). The Neuroscience of Motivation. Neuroleadership. 3; 43-52.
20. Yu, R., Mobbs, D., Seymour, B., Calder, A.J. (2010). Insula and Striatum Mediate the Default Bias. Journal of Neuroscience.
19. Kloppel, S., Stonnington, C., Petrovic, P., Mobbs, D., Tuscher, O., Craufurd, D., Tabrizi, S.J., Frackowiak, R.S.J. (2010). Irritability in pre-clinical Huntingtons disease. 48, 2; pp 549-557. Neuropsychologia.
18. Mobbs, D., Yu, R., Meyer, M., Passamonti, L., Seymour, B., Calder, A.J., Schweizer, S.,Frith, C.D., Dalgleish, T. (2009). A key role for similarity in vicarious reward. 324, 900, Science.
17. Mobbs, D., Petrovic, P., Marchant, J., Hassabis, D., Seymour, B., Gray, M., Tan, G., Petrovic, P., Dolan, R.J., and Frith, C.D., (2009). From threat to fear: The neural organization of defensive fear systems in the human brain. 39, 12236-12243. Journal of Neuroscience.
16. Takahashi, H., Kato, M., Matsuura, M., Mobbs, D., Suhara, T., Okubo, Y. (2009). When Your Gain Is My Pain and Your Pain is My Gain: Neural Correlates of Envy and Schandenfreude. Science.
15. Mobbs, D., Hassabis, D., Marchant, J., Seymour, B., Weiskopf, N., Dolan, R.J., Frith, C.D (2009). Choking on the money: Reward based performance decrements are associated with midbrain activity. Psychological Science.
14. Dalgleish, T., Dunn, B., and Mobbs, D. (2009). Affective Neuroscience: Past, present and future. Emotion Reviews.
13. Reiss AL, Hoeft F, Tenforde AS, Chen W, Mobbs D, Mignot, E. (2008) Anomalous Hypothalamic Responses to Humor in Cataplexy. PLoS-ONE 3(5): e2225.
12. Hagan, C.C., Hoeft, F., Mackay, A., Mobbs, D., Reiss, A.L (2008) Aberrant Neural Function during Emotion Attribution in Females with Fragile X Syndrome. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 47(12) 1443-1454.
11. Mobbs, D., Eckert M, Menon V, Mills D, Korenberg J, Galaburda A, Rose FE, Bellugi U, & Reiss AL (2007). Reduced visual and parietal activation during global processing in Williams syndrome. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology
10. Mobbs, D., Petrovic, P., Marchant, J., Hassabis, D., Weiskopf, N., Seymour, B.,Dolan, R.J., Frith, C.D. (2007). When fear is near: threat imminence elicits prefrontal-periaqueductal gray shifts in humans. Science. 24;317(5841):1079-83.
9. Mobbs, D., Lau, H.C., Jones, O.D., Frith, C.D. (2007). Law, Responsibility and the Brain. PLoS-Biology. 5; E103
8. Mobbs, D., Eckert, M., Mills, D., Korenberg, J., Bellugi, U., Galaburda, A. Reiss, A.L. (2007). Frontostriatal dysfunction during response inhibition in Williams syndrome. Biological Psychiatry.
7. Mobbs, D., Weiskopf, N., Lau, H.C., Featherstone, E., Dolan, R.J., Frith, C.D. (2006). The Kuleshov Effect: The Influence of Contextual Framing on Emotional Attributions. Social Cognitive and Affect Neuroscience. 1: 95-106.
6. Azim, E., Mobbs, D., Booil, Jo., Menon, V., Reiss, A.L. (2005). Sex differences in brain activation elicited by humor. Proc Natl Acad Sci. USA. 102; 16496-16501.
5. Mobbs, D., Hagan, C.C., Azim, E., Menon, V., Reiss, A.L. (2005). Personality predicts activity in reward and emotional regions associated with humor. Proc Natl Acad Sci. USA. 102; 16502-16507.
4. Mobbs, D & Hall, S.S. (2005). A reply to Uttal. Hypothetical high-level cognitive functions cannot be localized in the brain: Another argument for a revitalized behaviorism. The Behavior Analyst. 28 (1).
3. Mobbs, D., Garrett, A.S., Menon, V., Rose, F.E., Bellugi, U., Reiss, A.L. (2004). Anomalous brain activation during face and gaze processing in Williams syndrome. Neurology. 62; 2070-2076.
2. Piggot, J., Kwon, H., Mobbs, D., Blasey, C., Lotspeich, L., Menon, V., Bookheimer, S.Y., Reiss, A.L. (2004). Emotional attribution in high functioning individuals with autistic spectrum disorder: A functional imaging study. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 43, 4; 473-480.
1. Mobbs, D., Greicius, M., Azim, E., Menon, V., Reiss, A.L. (2003). Humor modulates the mesolimbic reward regions. Neuron, 40; 1041-1048.
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