Neuroscience · Decision-Making & Reward

Studying how the brain responds to reward.

M.Sc. Student, Peter Boris Centre for Addictions Research (McMaster)

I'm Daniel Nikitin, a MSc neuroscience student at McMaster University with interests in decision-making, reward, and risk-taking behaviour. My work focuses on understanding how cognitive biases and prior information shape people's decisions and choice behaviour, and whether these biases can systematically influence how individuals learn from and respond to rewards.

In parallel, I have contributed to clinical research in spine surgery, including studies on perioperative outcomes and postoperative risk in older adults, bridging cognitive science with real-world medical decision-making.

My CV

Education, research experience, and academic output.

Education

2026 — 2028
(Expected)

M.Sc. Neuroscience McMaster University, Faculty of Health Sciences

2022 — 2026

HB.Sc. Neuroscience Specialist University of Toronto, Dept. of Psychology & Brain Sciences

Research & Clinical Experience

08/2026 — Present

Graduate Student Researcher Peter Boris Centre for Addictions Research (Dr. Iris Balodis), McMaster University

Addictions research centred on reward processing and risk-taking behaviour.

05/2024 — Present

Project Leader / Thesis Student Fukuda Lab (Dr. Keisuke Fukuda), University of Toronto Mississauga

EEG and behavioural research on reward outcome evaluation, perceptual categorization, and visual working memory.

05/2024 — Present

Senior Research Assistant / Project Lead Oitment Spine Lab (Dr. Colby Oitment)

Leading systematic reviews and meta-analyses on surgical procedure outcomes in spine surgery.

05/2024 — Present

Volunteer Orthopedic Clinic (Dr. Colby Oitment), Scarborough General Hospital

Pre-surgical patient care and clinical observation in orthopedic surgery.

06/2025 — 04/2026

Research Assistant Biopsychosocial Investigations of Gender Lab (Dr. Doug VanderLaan), University of Toronto Mississauga

MRI preprocessing and neuroanatomical analysis for a longitudinal neuroimaging study, with CAMH's Brain Health Imaging Centre.

Publications

Early Postoperative Mortality and Morbidity Following Elective Spine Surgery in Patients Over 80 Years of Age

Nikitin, D., Bermudez-Hiu, A., Koziarz, F., Jiang, F., & Oitment, C. (2026) · Spine Open, 2(1)

Surgical Decision-Making in the Infected Thoracolumbar Spine: Managing Deep Surgical Site Infection After Instrumented Fusion

Oitment, C., Nikitin, D., Bermudez-Hiu, A., & Jiang, F. (Accepted) · JAAOS Global Research & Reviews

Conference Abstracts

Perioperative Morbidity and Mortality Following Elective Spinal Surgery in Octogenarians and Beyond: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Nikitin, D., Bermudez-Hiu, A., Jiang, F., Grant, K., & Oitment, C. (Accepted) · Global Spine Journal

Elective Spine Surgery in Octogenarians: Early Postoperative Mortality and Morbidity

Nikitin, D., Bermudez-Hiu, A., Jiang, F., Grant, K., & Oitment, C. (Accepted) · Canadian Journal of Surgery

Talks

Perioperative Morbidity and Mortality Following Elective Spinal Surgery in Octogenarians and Beyond: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Global Spine Congress (GSC), Istanbul, Turkey · 2026

Fooled or Enlightened by Frequency: When Frequency Tricks Decision-Making

Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour and Cognitive Science, York University · 2026

Fooled by Frequency—or Enlightened by It?

Society for Judgment and Decision Making, San Diego, California · 2026 (upcoming)

Conference Presentations

Why do People Choose Sub-optimal Choices?

Poster · Annual University of Toronto Undergraduate Research Day · 2026

Elective Spine Surgery in Octogenarians: Early Postoperative Mortality and Morbidity

Poster · 26th Annual Scientific Conference of the Canadian Spine Society, Alberta · 2026

Fooled by Frequency: Individual Differences in Frequency Bias and Recovery

Poster · 53rd Annual Lake Ontario Visionary Establishment (LOVE) Conference · 2026

Neural Correlates of Arbitrary Predictions in Perceptual Categorization

Poster · Annual Experiential Education Fair, University of Toronto · 2025

Neural Correlates of Arbitrary Predictions in Perceptual Categorization

Poster · Summer Undergraduate Psychology Exhibition of Research · 2025

Arbitrary and Explicit Predictions can Bias Perceptual Categorization

Poster · Vision Sciences Society Annual Meeting · 2025

Arbitrary and Explicit Predictions can Bias Perceptual Categorization

Poster · Annual University of Toronto Undergraduate Research Day · 2025

Arbitrary and Explicit Predictions can Bias Perceptual Categorization

Poster · 52nd Annual Lake Ontario Visionary Establishment (LOVE) Conference · 2025

Skills & Methods

EEG MRI / fMRI Preprocessing MATLAB R Experimental Design Behavioural Testing Systematic Reviews SONA Scheduling

Projects

Interactive breakdowns of published work.

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