Centre for Human Brain Health, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham
Why do things feel effortful?
Why do we get fatigued?
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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?
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When do we decide to be altruistic and help others out?
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How do we predict how motivated others are?
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Our research dissects the contributions of different prefrontal regions, their computations and pharmacological basis of the processes that underlie 'social motivation'.
THE COGNITIVE, COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE OF MOTIVATED BEHAVIOUR
January 2025
Jamie has published his first PhD paper, Dopamine boosts motivation for prosocial effort in Parkinson’s disease in Journal of Neuroscience.
October 2024
Society for Neuroeconomics Conference 2024
Members of the lab attended the Society for Neuroeconomics conference (SNE 2024) in Portugal and presented posters on their current research.
August 2024
A new member joins the lab!
Charley is a research assistant at the lab.
July 2024
Computational Social Cognition Summer School 2024 in Birmingham!
The Birmingham-Leiden Summer School on using computational modelling in psychological and neuroscience research took place at the University of Birmingham. Over the course of 3 days, it featured numerous lectures, keynote talks, tutorials, group projects, and social events, with more than 70 students participating from around the world.
July 2024
A new member joins the lab!
Hikaru is a visiting postdoctoral fellow at the MSN lab funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
May 2024
Control Processes Conference 2024 in Birmingham!
Matt was part of the organising committee from the CHBH for Control Processes 2024, which took place at the Edgbaston Park Hotel, University of Birmingham, from May 10th to 12th.
The conference featured brilliant talks and discussions by noted researchers in the field.
April 2024
A new member joins the lab!
Meijia is a postdoctoral fellow at the MSN lab.
February 2024
Emma presents a poster at a conference in Janelia!
Emma presents her work on how "Explore/exploit trade-off drives variation in patch foraging decisions" at the 'Bridging Diverse Perspectives on the Mechanistic Basis of Foraging' conference in Janelia.
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November 2023
A new member joins the lab!
Kübra is a research associate jointly working with Matthew Apps and Lei Zhang.
October 2023
The Lab attends a conference in Lyon!
Members of the lab attended the International conference on Motivational and Cognitive Control (MCC 2023) in Lyon, France. Dr. Matthew Apps gave a talk on the "Computational mechanisms of switching effort from cost to benefit in the medial frontal cortex." Other members of the lab presented posters on their current studies.
September 2023
Lab away day!
Members of the MSN lab and the Social Decision Neuroscience lab travelled to Corpus Christi College, Oxford for a joint lab retreat. The activity of the day was called 'Empathy for Pain: Designing somebody else's next project', for which lab members were paired to design each other's next experiment. This was followed by a fun-filled science quiz.
August 2023
Two new members join the lab!
Selma Lugtmeijer is a postdoctoral fellow and Nikita Mehta is a research assistant at the MSN lab.
July 2023
MSN lab receives the BBSRC Pioneer Award!
The lab was awarded a BBSRC Pioneer Award of £200k to examine the mechanisms underlying fatigue using spinal fMRI.
May 2023
Virtual seminar on neural and theoretical mechanisms of foraging.
Matt and Aaron Bornstein deliver a virtual seminar on foraging behaviour as part of the Future of Foraging Seminar Series. To see the talk, click here
March 2023
Matt awarded Wellcome Discovery Award alongside researchers from Oxford University!
In collaboration with Professors Masud Husain, Catherine Harmer and Simon Little (University of Oxford), Matt was awarded the 7 year Wellcome Discovery Award, to further research into brain mechanisms underlying motivation and apathy.
February 2023
Matt receives an ERC grant!
Matt was awarded 5-year Є2m European Research Council Consolidator grant to examine the psychological, computational and neural mechanisms of the effort paradox.
December 2022
Matt receives 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”.
