Neuroscientist Kauê M. Costa redefines how the brain learns

Learning from unexpected results: This neuroscientist is redefining how the brain learns

Neuroscientist Kauê M. Costa talks about surprising results that are changing how we think dopamine works and how the brain really learns

This episode is part of “ The Young American Scientists , ” an editorially independent project that was produced with financial support from Regeneron .

Rachel Feltman: For Scientific American ’s Science Quickly , I’m Rachel Feltman.

Today we’re back with another one of SciAm ’s 2026 Young American Scientists. This group of groundbreaking researchers represent the future of science, technology and medicine. One of those honorees is Kauê Machado Costa, an assistant professor at the department of psychology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He studies how learning works on a neurological level.

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Feltman: Before we get into the subject of your research specifically, I have to ask if you would tell me why you describe yourself as slightly cursed?

Costa: Over the course of my career, there have been only very few instances where I have made a prediction, right? I have a hypothesis, I made a prediction, and my prediction actually turned out to be correct. Almost every single time when I make a prediction and I do the experiments, I get the opposite results or something that was entirely unexpected, not even in the realm of my imagination at the time.