Black and white photograph of Ben Scott.

Ben Scott

Assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences
Boston University

Benjamin Scott is assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences at Boston University.  He obtained his B.A. in biology from the University of Chicago and his Ph.D. in neuroscience from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University, where he studied with David Tank and Carlos Brody.

Scott’s lab develops and applies new technologies to study the neural basis of cognition and complex learned behavior.  His work brings together high-throughput behavioral training and advanced techniques for imaging brain activity in order to identify and characterize the neural circuits involved in evidence-based decision-making.

https://www.scottcognitionlab.com/

From this contributor

Explore more from The Transmitter

Hands cut a ribbon.

What Trump’s psychedelics executive order means for basic neuroscience

The order provides a potential path to remove some psychedelic drugs from the strictest regulatory category, yet it “may not be the breakthrough the basic research community has been looking for,” says neuroscientist Shawn Lockery.

By Calli McMurray
24 April 2026 | 4 min read
Research image visualizing neuronal activity.

Switching neural code may solve ongoing face-recognition debate

Face patch cells in macaque monkeys initially respond to images of any object but rapidly transition to attend to faces exclusively, a new study finds.

By Holly Barker
23 April 2026 | 5 min read

Liset de la Prida explains how neuron subtypes may control the activity of large neural populations, from manifolds to ripples

De la Prida's work analyzing the varieties of sharp wave ripples in the hippocampus led to her discovery that specific types of neurons control the properties of neural manifolds.

By Paul Middlebrooks
22 April 2026 | 104 min listen