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'.
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!
May 2021
Aging Increases Prosocial Motivation for Effort
New paper published in Psychological Science. Read it here! Also check out the press coverage in The Times, i news, the Irish Times, or any number of othe routlets that picked it up
November 2020
New PhD opportunities
We have two new PhD positions available. Click on the links below for more information.
2)Modelling Basal-Ganglia contributions to motivational impairments in Parkinson’s Disease
Matt wins BACN prize!
Matt has been awarded the 2021 British Association for Cognitive Neuroscience prize for early and mid-career scientists
October 2020
The lab is growing!
We have four new members of the lab, including MSc, BSc and PhDs students. The lab offers our warmest welcome to Katia, Alice, Danielle, and Lucy.
July 2020
MSN Lab has moved!
The lab is now based at the Centre for Human Brain Health, University of Birmingham, UK. We are excited to continue our research at this fantastic facility.
©2021 BY MOTIVATION AND SOCIAL NEUROSCIENCE LAB. UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM