William Silver

I am interested in how neuromodulators, serotonin and dopamine, enable the brain to generate flexible, adaptive behaviour.

I work primarily on the prefrontal cortex: a region thought to be key for learning models of the world and mediating behavioural flexibility. Whilst serotonin and dopamine receptors occupy a unique anatomical niche in the prefrontal cortex, their activity during behaviour is uncharacterised. My research aims to understand the role these neuromodulators play in building simple world models, and using them to guide expert behaviour.

To record serotonin and dopamine dynamics, we use modern fiber photometry sensors in freely-moving mice whilst they perform reward-guided decision-making tasks. Central to testing hypotheses is creating a virtuous in-vivo-in-silico research cycle: demanding close interplay between data, theory and computational modelling.

More widely, I am excited by advancements in neuro-AI, and believe understanding the multiscale principles of neuromodulatory systems in biological networks could prove valuable to constructing novel neural network models and learning algorithms.