Centre for Human Brain Health, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham
THE COGNITIVE, COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE OF MOTIVATED BEHAVIOUR
Why do things feel effortful?
Why do we get fatigued?
Why can motivation become impaired through ageing and in brain disorders?
Our group examines the role of fronto-striatal systems in the brain, their computations and the contributions of different brain chemicals underlying healthy and disrupted motivation.
Why is social cognition demanding?
When do we decide to be altruistic and help others out?
How do we predict how motivated others are?
Our research dissects the contributions of different prefrontal regions, their computations and pharmacological basis of the processes that underlie 'social motivation'.
February 2023
Matt got an ERC grant!
Matt awarded 5-year Є2m European Research Council Consolidator grant to examine the psychological, computational and neural mechanisms of the effort paradox
December 2022
Matt got a Jacob Foundations Fellowship!
Matt awarded a Jacobs Foundation Fellowship to examine how the ability to work towards deadlines develops in children and adolescents
October 2022
Two new members join the lab!
Zhilin Su and Jamie Talbot started their PhDs at MSN lab. Welcome!
September 2022
Matt and Tanja received the 2022 Society for Neuroeconomics paper award
The Society for Neuroeconomics awarded the authors for their paper “Neural and computational mechanisms of momentary fatigue and persistence in effort-based choice'”.
August 2022
Matt, together with Patricia Lockwood and Steve Chang, received the 2022 SANS Innovation Award
The Social and Affective Neuroscience Society (SANS) awarded the authors for their innovative paper “Is There a ‘Social’ Brain? Implementations and Algorithms”.
September 2021
One new member for the lab!
New members join to the lab! Roberta Roberts joins as a postdoc to work on effort and force data. Welcome!
August 2021
Sebastian and Tanja have finished their PhD
The very first members of the MSN lab have finally finished their PhD studies at University of Oxford! They both have defended successfully their thesis and now they are officially Dr. Contreras-Huerta and Dr. Muller. Well done and congratulations, guys!
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