Social buffering of fear inhibition in adolescent rats. Adolescence is an important time when individuals learn to manage stress-related emotions like fear. Peers can help, or hinder, individuals to regulate fear. This project aims to understand how, when, and for whom social buffering of fear regulation occurs during adolescence. It uses a behavioural, pharmacological, and neural approach to explore these issues. The project aims to close the gap in understanding of how social companions affect ....Social buffering of fear inhibition in adolescent rats. Adolescence is an important time when individuals learn to manage stress-related emotions like fear. Peers can help, or hinder, individuals to regulate fear. This project aims to understand how, when, and for whom social buffering of fear regulation occurs during adolescence. It uses a behavioural, pharmacological, and neural approach to explore these issues. The project aims to close the gap in understanding of how social companions affect basic learning and memory processes in an understudied population of adolescents. The expected outcomes of this project include a richer knowledge of how peers shape emotional regulation during development, which will ultimately inform social-based approaches for improving emotion regulation in youth.
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Robots as a Social Group: Implications for Human-Robot Interaction. This Project aims to identify psychological factors that can limit the acceptance of robots in the home and workplace. As robots become more pervasive in everyday life, they are also likely to elicit fear, rejection, and even damage. The significance of the Project lies in its social neuroscientific approach to promoting better human-robot interaction by considering robots as a social group. Expect outcomes include theory develo ....Robots as a Social Group: Implications for Human-Robot Interaction. This Project aims to identify psychological factors that can limit the acceptance of robots in the home and workplace. As robots become more pervasive in everyday life, they are also likely to elicit fear, rejection, and even damage. The significance of the Project lies in its social neuroscientific approach to promoting better human-robot interaction by considering robots as a social group. Expect outcomes include theory development about human and robot intergroup acceptance, enhanced institutional and international collaborations, and much needed psychological knowledge for robot designers. Benefits include a detailed understanding of how to increase the acceptance of robots in a wide variety of fields.Read moreRead less
Evaluating the Network Neuroscience of Human Cognition to Improve AI. This project will translate the brain’s inherent complexity into a set of explorable networks that will test the network theory of intelligence, and also be used to drive advances in next generation artificial neural networks. Our approach will catalyse new knowledge regarding how the complexity of the brain gives rise to cognition using innovative analyses inspired by physics and engineering. This fresh perspective on cogniti ....Evaluating the Network Neuroscience of Human Cognition to Improve AI. This project will translate the brain’s inherent complexity into a set of explorable networks that will test the network theory of intelligence, and also be used to drive advances in next generation artificial neural networks. Our approach will catalyse new knowledge regarding how the complexity of the brain gives rise to cognition using innovative analyses inspired by physics and engineering. This fresh perspective on cognition will accelerate understanding of normal cognitive function and also advance the development of advances in artificial neural network performance. Expected outcomes include methods to describe the computational signature of how cognition emerges from dynamic brain network activity and novel AI algorithms. Read moreRead less
Automatic detection and modelling of acoustic markers of speech timing. This project aims to create new automatic sensing, analysis and assessment of cognitive, affective, mental and physical state from voice for mobile and computing devices. This project expects to generate new understanding of the effects of these states on detailed timing indicators of speech motor control, and new signal processing and machine learning methods that best exploit it. Expected outcomes from this project include ....Automatic detection and modelling of acoustic markers of speech timing. This project aims to create new automatic sensing, analysis and assessment of cognitive, affective, mental and physical state from voice for mobile and computing devices. This project expects to generate new understanding of the effects of these states on detailed timing indicators of speech motor control, and new signal processing and machine learning methods that best exploit it. Expected outcomes from this project include a new and accurate deep neural network framework for learning, analysing and detecting human states from speech automatically using articulatory timing markers. This should provide significant benefits, such as individually-tailored, frequent and low-cost automatic detection, monitoring and analytics for adverse states.Read moreRead less
Risky choices: From cells and circuits to computations and behaviour. This project aims to ask and answer fundamental questions about how we safely make risky decisions to guide our behaviour. It combines theoretically driven approaches from experimental psychology with state-of-the-art technology for mapping and manipulating brain function. The project expects to show, with unprecedented behavioural, brain cell type, and circuit precision, how we safely make choices, how these choices are shape ....Risky choices: From cells and circuits to computations and behaviour. This project aims to ask and answer fundamental questions about how we safely make risky decisions to guide our behaviour. It combines theoretically driven approaches from experimental psychology with state-of-the-art technology for mapping and manipulating brain function. The project expects to show, with unprecedented behavioural, brain cell type, and circuit precision, how we safely make choices, how these choices are shaped by experience, and how controlling these cells and circuits controls choice. This outcome should provide significant benefits including a new knowledge base bridging behavioural, cognitive, and neural sciences to advance theories of behaviour and laying a new basic science platform to understand impulsive behaviours.Read moreRead less
How the brain learns and uses inhibitory predictions. Humans and other animals readily learn about cues and actions that predict the absence of important events. Yet, how and where such inhibitory predictions are processed in the mammalian brain remains unclear. This project aims to demonstrate that inhibitory predictions are generally encoded and retrieved in the medial prefrontal cortex, without any detailed information about the absent events. It combines a unique behavioural approach with th ....How the brain learns and uses inhibitory predictions. Humans and other animals readily learn about cues and actions that predict the absence of important events. Yet, how and where such inhibitory predictions are processed in the mammalian brain remains unclear. This project aims to demonstrate that inhibitory predictions are generally encoded and retrieved in the medial prefrontal cortex, without any detailed information about the absent events. It combines a unique behavioural approach with the latest tools for manipulation of brain activity in behaving rodents. The project expects to generate new insights into how the mammalian brain extracts inhibitory predictions from the environment to guide our behaviours and decisions in the most optimal way.Read moreRead less
What is the role of striatal dopamine in value-based decision-making? The aim of this project is to understand the role of dopamine in the brain circuits controlling goal-directed action. Its significance lies in our use of newly developed tools to measure dopamine release and cellular activity concurrently to assess the causal role of this interaction in choice and decision-making. The expected outcome of this project is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the role of dopamine release i ....What is the role of striatal dopamine in value-based decision-making? The aim of this project is to understand the role of dopamine in the brain circuits controlling goal-directed action. Its significance lies in our use of newly developed tools to measure dopamine release and cellular activity concurrently to assess the causal role of this interaction in choice and decision-making. The expected outcome of this project is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the role of dopamine release in striatal cellular activity and in the psychological processes mediating goal-directed decision-making. This outcome will have the benefit of filling a gap in our knowledge of the brain processes mediating decision-making, a fundamental capacity that contributes to our physical and psychological wellbeing (wellness). Read moreRead less
Neural circuit control of effort under stress . This Project aims to investigate how the ‘decision’ to persist in exerting effort to obtain a reward is encoded in the the brain and affected by stress. This work will generate new knowledge on the neural mechanisms through which stress modifies neural activity to control decision making processes underpinning adaptive behaviours essential for survival. The expected outcomes of this work include enhanced capacity at the interface of behavioural a ....Neural circuit control of effort under stress . This Project aims to investigate how the ‘decision’ to persist in exerting effort to obtain a reward is encoded in the the brain and affected by stress. This work will generate new knowledge on the neural mechanisms through which stress modifies neural activity to control decision making processes underpinning adaptive behaviours essential for survival. The expected outcomes of this work include enhanced capacity at the interface of behavioural and computational neuroscience, that will in turn provide significant benefits through greater insight into brain functions essential for survival, with long ranging implications for performance optimisation and brain-inspired computing. Read moreRead less
Creating a non-invasive window into the mind. This project aims to create better tools to study the human mind. This project expects to generate new knowledge that can be used to non-invasively image neuronal activity. Expected outcomes include the development of unique new Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) instruments to study neuronal activity in both highly controlled laboratory conditions and in humans, with the spatial and temporal resolution needed to study the neuronal circuitry that drive ....Creating a non-invasive window into the mind. This project aims to create better tools to study the human mind. This project expects to generate new knowledge that can be used to non-invasively image neuronal activity. Expected outcomes include the development of unique new Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) instruments to study neuronal activity in both highly controlled laboratory conditions and in humans, with the spatial and temporal resolution needed to study the neuronal circuitry that drives low and high-level brain functions, i.e., creating a window into the mind. In the future, outcomes from this study could improve our understanding of mental disorders, advance computer brain interface technology, and inspire the next paradigm shift in artificial intelligence.Read moreRead less