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Neurochemistry, Action and Control

Brain Systems Choice & Decision Making Cognition & Information Processing Learning Neurophysiology, Neural Mechanisms & Networks Neuropsychiatric Disorders

Founded in 2010

Funded by Wellcome, MRC, BBSRC

First lab in the UK to establish fast-scan cyclic voltammetry during behaviour

Prof. Mark Walton

We are interested in the way in which our brains are able to integrate across these multiple different types of information in order to guide appropriate decisions.  There is a particular focus on how different aspects of value are learned, represented and used to guide choice behaviour within frontal-striatal-dopaminergic circuits.  The long-term goal is to use the information gleaned about the function of these systems to better understand how the process of valuation and decision making goes awry in neuropsychiatric disorders.

The laboratory uses a range of recording and interference techniques to address these questions, including fibre photometry, fast-scan cyclic voltammetry, optogenetics and neuropharmacological manipulations.  In particular, we are keen to use combinations of techniques in order to probe communication between brain regions and causal interactions within these networks.  Our behavioural tasks are designed with an eye to ideas in disciplines such as behavioural ecology, animal learning theory and neuroeconomics as well as behavioural and cognitive neuroscience.

See lab website for more details

 

 

 

 

 

Our team

Key publications

Current Oxford Collaborators

  • Thomas Akam, Experimental Psychology
  • David Bannerman, Experimental Psychology
  • Tim Behrens, FMRIB Centre
  • Rafal Bogacz, MRC BNDU / NDCN
  • Stephanie Cragg, DPAG
  • Alex Kacelnik, Biology
  • Peter Magill, MRC BNDU / NDCN
  • Sanjay Manohar, NDCN
  • Andy Sharott, MRC BNDU / NDCN
  • Trevor Sharp, Pharmacology

Fast-scan cyclic voltammetry set-up

External Collaborators

  • Dayne Beccano-Kelly, Cardiff
  • Thomas Blackmore, Compass Pathways
  • Sebastien Bouret, Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle epiniere, ICM, Paris, France
  • Francois Gastembide, Lundbeck

Related research themes

Behavioural Neuroscience