prediction and learning lab
CURRENT MAJOR PROJECTS
Chemical and Brain Basis of Uncertainty​
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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 uses 7T neuroimaging to understand 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.
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This project is led by Tom and Tim. You can read more about this study here.
Certain about Uncertainty
Uncovering the mechanisms ​of treatment in affective disorders.
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We have effective treatments for mood and anxiety disorders, such as antidepressants and psychological therapy - but they only work for about 50% of people.
In this large-scale project we will be using computational modelling to uncover the mechanisms that drive people's difficulties in coping with uncertainty, and running pharmacological and psychological interventions to better understand whether these processes underlie successful treatment response.
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There are many elements to this project, involving collaborations with researchers across Cambridge and in Denmark. You can read more about the project here.
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This project is led by Tim, Millie, Ido, Nazia and Nace. We'll be posting more about these studies as and when recruitment begins.
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Neurocomputational mechanisms of hypervigilance
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When the world is uncertain it is adaptive to be vigilant and pay close attention to potential threats. But in people with anxiety disorders, this vigilance becomes excessive, making it hard to relax and disrupting daily life.
However, the neurocomputational mechanisms of vigilance are poorly understood. This project uses computational modelling, eye-tracking, mouse-tracking and EEG to better understand the multi-faceted nature of (hyper)vigilance and its relevance to mental health conditions. ​
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This project is led by Bowen (Eddie).
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Development of uncertainty processing on local and global scales
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What makes adults better or worse at tolerating uncertainty, and how does the development of this machinery interact with global uncertainties such as early life adversity and the cost of living crisis.​
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This project utilises longitudinal data modelling, computational approaches and EEG to understand how uncertainty is impacted by the transition from adolescence to adulthood and how this development is shaped by different sorts of environmental uncertainties.
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This project is led by Friederike.
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The interaction between learning and effort-based choices ​
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Effortful actions can be especially challenging for people with depression and anxiety. Our willingness to exert effort depends on how valuable we perceive the outcome to be, and that perception is shaped by prior learning. Yet, the connection between learning.
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This project combines novel task development, computational modelling, and online studies in clinical groups to uncover how learned values are translated into effortful choices, and how this is impacted by fatigue and anhedonia.
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The project is led by Calum.
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Cambridge Research into Autism and Anxiety​
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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.
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You can read more about this study here.
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This project is led by Brónagh, Tim and Claudia.
Baby PaL
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In this project, we explored 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.
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You can read more about this study here.
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This project is led by Addison and Ellie.