Ziv Ben-Zion, PhD

Can Artificial Intelligence Get High, And Why Are Scientists Even Trying? AI is getting seriously good at simulating psychedelic trips.

www.iflscience.com/can-artifici...

Grateful to @biologicalpsych.bsky.social for highlighting our work on fear vs. emotional pain in PTSD, from symptom networks to neural signatures. Open access for 60 days 👇
doi.org/10.1016/j.bi...

Honored to receive the @acnporg.bsky.social Travel Award! Grateful for the support and for the opportunity to share our work and engage with this outstanding scientific community.
@haifaresearch.bsky.social @yaleschoolofmed.bsky.social @yale.edu @dpn-journal.bsky.social @npp-journal.bsky.social

@acnporg.bsky.social #ACNP2026

More Than Just Fear: A New Profile of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Both fear and emotional pain present unique symptom profiles in individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder, potentially informing new treatment approaches.

PTSD is not only about fear. Our new work identifies an emotional pain–dominant profile with distinct neural signatures.
🔗 medicine.yale.edu/news-article...

האקדמיה של השלישי המלאכותי | ד"ר זיו בן ציון | כשהצ'אטבוט נכנס לחרדה YouTube video by השלישי המלאכותי

youtu.be/Nc09JgOT38M?...

💥 Why do some people develop PTSD while others stay resilient?
I joined Haifa IBBRC podcast to discuss the neurocognitive mechanisms of stress and the intersection of AI & mental health. @haifaresearch.bsky.social

🎧 Listen here: open.spotify.com/episode/7fHf...

​#Neuroscience #PTSD #SciComm

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@yale.edu
@yalesph.bsky.social

Thank you🙏
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The Two Faces of #PTSD: Fear vs. Emotional Pain. Our new research in Biological Psychiatry @biologicalpsych.bsky.social identifies distinct clinical & neural profiles.

AI says no one reads long papers, so we made an infographic!👇

Full Paper (for the insistents😉): doi.org/10.1016/j.bi...

Dissecting Fear and Emotional Pain in PTSD: From Symptom Networks to Neural Signatures Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a heterogeneous condition with diverse symptom presentations and emotional experiences. While fear is traditio…

Excited to see this paper out in Biological Psychiatry! It highlights that emotional pain and fear represent distinct PTSD dimensions, leading us closer to identifying PTSD subtypes with dissociable biological underpinnings. Congrats on leading the charge on this cool study @zivbenzion.bsky.social

Dr. Ziv Ben-Zion is a clinical neuroscientist studying the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying stress vulnerability and resilience, aiming to develop personalized treatments for stress- and anxiety-related disorders, particularly PTSD #ACNP2026 /
@zivbenzion.bsky.social

Psychedelics and collective trauma: multisystemic resilience and recovery pathways among Nova festival survivors – a qualitative study Objective: On 7 October 2023, a mass-casualty attack at the Nova festival in Israel created an unprecedented convergence of collective trauma and altered states of consciousness. Many survivors wer...

📢 Our new study on psychedelics, trauma & resilience among Nova survivors is out in EJPT: doi.org/10.1080/2000...

We found that healing was shaped by friendship, community, shared rituals & compassionate spaces.

Because after collective trauma, connection becomes medicine 💛

1,000 citations! 1️⃣0️⃣0️⃣0️⃣
Next stop: understanding the brain 🧠😉🎉

'Tron: Ares' And What Happens When AI Gets The Feels What does AI do with human feelings? To investigate its readiness to serve as a therapist, a neuroscientist took ChatGPT for an emotional ride.

🎙️ Excited to share my recent interview on Science Friday, airing on 500+ @npr.org stations and reaching 1.8M weekly listeners. I spoke with Emma Gometz about emotional AI and what happens when chatbots start to “feel.”
👉 www.sciencefriday.com/articles/tro...
#AI #LLM #Ethics #MentalHealth #Science

Finally we can breathe again... Welcome Home! 🙏❤️🎗

🚨 New preprint!
Can AI agents show emotional bias like humans under stress?
🔗 www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-7...

🤖 After exposure to traumatic text, LLMs-as-agents made less-healthy food choices, mirroring stress-driven human behavior

@haifaresearch.bsky.social @researchsqualler.bsky.social

ד"ר זיו בן ציון מאוניברסיטת חיפה בפודקאסט N12: הבינה המלאכותית יכולה לעודד מצוקה נפשית - אוניברסיטת חיפה ד"ר זיו בן ציון מאוניברסיטת חיפה בפודקאסט N12: הבינה המלאכותית יכולה לעודד מצוקה נפשית - אוניברסיטת חיפה מזמינה אתכם להתעדכן בכל החדשות והאירועים המתרחשים בקמפוס ובקהילה האקדמי

www.haifa.ac.il/2025/09/04/%...

@haifaresearch.bsky.social @wutsaiyale.bsky.social @yaleschoolofmed.bsky.social @kavliatyale.bsky.social @yaleneuro.bsky.social
@timesofisrael.com

Exciting news! 🎉
I’ve been awarded the ISF Beresheet Grant (~₪7M) to launch the Resilience & Recovery Lab at Haifa University. 🧠
Our STRONG project will examine how people & communities recover from trauma - through surveys, behavioral & fMRI studies - to uncover resilience & guide interventions. 💪

Sounds good!

@nature.com @natureportfolio.nature.com @springernature.com @yaleschoolofmed.bsky.social @haifaresearch.bsky.social @wutsaiyale.bsky.social @yaleneuro.bsky.social @yalepress.bsky.social @kavliatyale.bsky.social

Why we need mandatory safeguards for emotionally responsive AI Virtual chatbots that simulate conversations with famous actors or sci-fi characters can have real-world consequences.

"Emotional influence isn’t a glitch.
It’s a core feature of large language models (LLMs).
If we celebrate their ability to comfort or advise, we must also confront their capacity to mislead or manipulate." 🤖😇😈

🔗Read here: nature.com/articles/d41...
📰Full PDF: rdcu.be/eugi1
Thank you @nature.com 🙏

Congrats! 👏

Thanks for sharing!

🙏

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for sharing!

Why we need mandatory safeguards for emotionally responsive AI Virtual chatbots that simulate conversations with famous actors or sci-fi characters can have real-world consequences.

Virtual chatbots that simulate conversations with famous actors or sci-fi characters can have real-world consequences, says Ziv Ben-Zion

https://go.nature.com/44nUTQo

Thank you @nature.com 🙏👌🤩