Tal received her BSc degree in psychology and biology from Tel Aviv University. She continued to pursue her interest in brain-behavior relations and completed her master’s (in 2005) and PhD (2009) degrees in clinical neuropsychology at the University of Haifa. During her neuropsychological training she worked at a pediatric rehabilitation department and witnessed the behavioral and social consequences of childhood neurological disorders. Her research focused on altered social cognition associated with brain disorders. She examined the developmental pattern of cognitive and emotional aspects of Theory of Mind abilities, and how these are differentially affected by early frontal brain injuries.

Tal joined the Memory and Aging Center in 2009. She is a postdoctoral fellow working on the Measuring Altered Social Behavior in Neurodegenerative Disease study with Dr. Rankin. Tal is interested in the cognitive mechanisms by which neurodegenerative diseases alter the ability to understand others in a social-emotional setting, and is developing ways to examine Theory of Mind, emotion understanding and social knowledge in these populations.