Jamal Esmaily
Papers
1
Total Citations
6
H-Index
1
About
Jamal Esmaily is a cognitive neuroscientist whose research sits at the intersection of decision-making, metacognition, and motor control. His work challenges the traditional view that decisions are made purely from sensory evidence, instead demonstrating that the effort required to execute an action fundamentally shapes both our choices and our confidence in them. In his highly influential 2023 paper, "Does decision confidence reflect effort?" (6 citations), Esmaily provides compelling evidence that the brain integrates the cost of movement into the decision process itself—a finding that bridges a critical gap between perceptual and motor systems. This contribution has already sparked new lines of inquiry into how fatigue, physical effort, and motor planning influence higher-order cognitive judgments. Esmaily’s research is notable for its elegant experimental designs that isolate the role of action from perception, offering a fresh perspective on why we sometimes feel less confident in our decisions even when the evidence is clear. His work is essential reading for anyone interested in embodied cognition, computational psychiatry, or the neural basis of confidence.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Does decision confidence reflect effort?6 citations · 2023