prediction and learning lab
CURRENT MAJOR PROJECTS
Chemical and Brain Basis of Uncertainty
Knowing what to expect is helpful to navigate daily life, but sometimes our expectations are wrong and we need to revise or update them. This is a really important part of learning, but we don’t know very much about which parts of the brain, or which brain chemicals, are important in this process. The CBBU study aims to examine which bits of the brain are active during expectation updating, and whether a drug used to improve attention (i.e. a common ADHD medication) helps with updating.
You can read more about this study here.
Coping during COVID-19
Coping during COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented global situation which has changed our daily way of life. We are interested to know more about how the lockdown measures to tackle COVID-19 are affecting the wellbeing, mental health and everyday routines of autistic and non-autistic adults. We've designed a survey to capture peoples experiences and we are looking to get as many responses as possible.
You can find out more about our survey here.
Cambridge Research into Autism and Anxiety
Half of all autistic people have a co-occurring anxiety disorder, but it's not clear why autistic people are more prone to anxiety. The CamRAA project aims to understand the similarities and differences between anxiety and autism.
You can read more about this study here.
This project is led by Brónagh, Tim and Claudia.
Baby PaL
In this project, we will explore how the infant brain learns to build associations between sounds and pictures. Understanding how this learning occurs in typical development may help us to understand more about developmental disorders.
You can read more about this study here.
This project is led by Addison and Berk.
ONGOING COLLABORATIONS
Sensory learning in ASD
Currently exploring how people with ASD use the predictive structure in the environment to inform perception and behaviour. We make use of behavioural, neuroimaging and pharmacological manipulations in conjunction with computational modelling to explore this area.
Collaborators: Karl Friston, Christoph Mathys
Adaptive coding mechanisms in ASD
Adaptation is a fundamental process in neural systems in which the neural and behavioural response to a stimulus changes as a function of recent spatial and temporal context. Adaptation changes our perception moment to moment, and this project explores how adaptive coding mechanisms might relate to "sensory overload" in ASD.
Collaborators: Chen Song, Colin Palmer
Confidence in perceptual awareness
When sensory information is noisy or impoverished we feel uncertain what we just saw, but does this uncertainty influence what we expect to see next? This project is using functional neuroimaging in healthy volunteers to explore this question.
Collaborators: Yutaka Komura, Ryota Kanai
The role of the habenula in aversive learning
An ongoing collaboration exploring the role of the habenula in signalling expectations about negative events in major depressive disorder.
Collaborators: Jonathan Roiser