Jonathan Kasdin

Neuroscience PhD Candidate

Jonathan Kasdin is a PhD candidate in Neurobiology and Behavior at Columbia University's Zuckerman Institute, where he studies the neural basis of skill acquisition using songbird vocal learning as a model. His work examines how dopamine shapes trial-and-error learning during development. In a recent study published in Nature (2025), he provided the first direct evidence that dopamine mediates the acquisition of natural behaviors by encoding performance feedback—rising after successful song renditions and falling after errors.

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Education

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