Christopher Summerfield

PhD MSc BA

Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience

ERC Starter Investigator
Fellow of Wadham College

Neural and computational bases of human decision-making

Research Summary

Research SummarY

My work is concerned with understanding the neural and comptutational mechanisms that underlie human perception and cognition. The main function of the nervous system is to select an appropriate action in response to incoming sensory information. In my lab, we attempt to understand how this occurs by using simple judgment tasks in which participants view a visual stimulus and classify it into one of two categories (i.e. is this grating tilted leftwards or rightwards? Is this face male or female?). We begin by measuring behaviour (choices and response times), eye movments and pupil diameter, and performing computer simulations to try to provide a mechanistic account of how information is transformed en route from sensation to action. Subsequently, we record brain activity using electroencephalography (EEG) or functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which can help validate the computational model and identify how it is implemented in the neural circuitry of the human brain.

Robust sampling of decision information during perceptual choice.
Vandormael H. et al, (2017), Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 114, 2771 - 2776
Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex Encodes a Latent Estimate of Cumulative Reward.
Juechems K. et al, (2017), Neuron, 93, 705 - 714.e4
Neural Circuits Trained with Standard Reinforcement Learning Can Accumulate Probabilistic Information during Decision Making.
Kurzawa N. et al, (2017), Neural Comput, 29, 368 - 393
Perceptual Decision Making in Rodents, Monkeys, and Humans.
Hanks TD. and Summerfield C., (2017), Neuron, 93, 15 - 31
Visual Prediction Error Spreads Across Object Features in Human Visual Cortex.
Jiang J. et al, (2016), J Neurosci, 36, 12746 - 12763
Encoding of Stimulus Probability in Macaque Inferior Temporal Cortex.
Bell AH. et al, (2016), Curr Biol, 26, 2280 - 2290
Reply to Davis-Stober et al.: Violations of rationality in a psychophysical task are not aggregation artifacts.
Tsetsos K. et al, (2016), Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 113, E4764 - E4766
Feature-Based Attention and Feature-Based Expectation.
Summerfield C. and Egner T., (2016), Trends Cogn Sci, 20, 401 - 404
Neural Mechanisms of Hierarchical Planning in a Virtual Subway Network.
Balaguer J. et al, (2016), Neuron, 90, 893 - 903
Rhythmic gain control during supramodal integration of approximate number.
Spitzer B. et al, (2016), Neuroimage, 129, 470 - 479
Near-optimal Integration of Magnitude in the Human Parietal Cortex.
Tickle H. et al, (2016), J Cogn Neurosci, 28, 589 - 603
Economic irrationality is optimal during noisy decision making.
Tsetsos K. et al, (2016), Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 113, 3102 - 3107
The P300 as a build-to-threshold variable (Commentary on Twomey et al.).
Summerfield C. and Tickle H., (2015), Eur J Neurosci, 42
The P300 as a build-to-threshold variable (Commentary on Twomey et al.)
Summerfield C. and Tickle H., (2015), European Journal of Neuroscience, 42
Ghosts in the decision machine.
Summerfield C. and Blangero A., (2015), Neuron, 86, 861 - 863
Unreliable evidence: 2 sources of uncertainty during perceptual choice.
Michael E. et al, (2015), Cereb Cortex, 25, 937 - 947
Neural mechanisms of human perceptual choice under focused and divided attention.
Wyart V. et al, (2015), J Neurosci, 35, 3485 - 3498
Feature expectation heightens visual sensitivity during fine orientation discrimination.
Cheadle S. et al, (2015), J Vis, 15
Do humans make good decisions?
Summerfield C. and Tsetsos K., (2015), Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 19, 27 - 34
Shared mechanisms for confidence judgements and error detection in human decision making
Yeung N. and Summerfield C., (2014), The Cognitive Neuroscience of Metacognition, 9783642451904, 147 - 167
Expectation in perceptual decision making: neural and computational mechanisms.
Summerfield C. and de Lange FP., (2014), Nat Rev Neurosci, 15, 745 - 756
Neural mechanisms of economic commitment in the human medial prefrontal cortex.
Tsetsos K. et al, (2014), Elife, 3
Priming by the variability of visual information.
Michael E. et al, (2014), Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 111, 7873 - 7878
Adaptive gain control during human perceptual choice.
Cheadle S. et al, (2014), Neuron, 81, 1429 - 1441
Oh, rats! Post-error behavioral adjustment in creatures great and small.
Summerfield C. and Yeung N., (2013), Nat Neurosci, 16, 1715 - 1716
Attention sharpens the distinction between expected and unexpected percepts in the visual brain.
Jiang J. et al, (2013), J Neurosci, 33, 18438 - 18447
Concurrent repetition enhancement and suppression responses in extrastriate visual cortex.
de Gardelle V. et al, (2013), Cereb Cortex, 23, 2235 - 2244
Grounding predictive coding models in empirical neuroscience research.
Egner T. and Summerfield C., (2013), Behav Brain Sci, 36, 210 - 211
Overlapping multivoxel patterns for two levels of visual expectation
de Gardelle V. et al, (2013), Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
Overlapping multivoxel patterns for two levels of visual expectation.
de Gardelle V. et al, (2013), Front Hum Neurosci, 7
Rhythmic fluctuations in evidence accumulation during decision making in the human brain.
Wyart V. et al, (2012), Neuron, 76, 847 - 858
Metacognition in human decision-making: confidence and error monitoring.
Yeung N. and Summerfield C., (2012), Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci, 367, 1310 - 1321
Dissociable prior influences of signal probability and relevance on visual contrast sensitivity.
Wyart V. et al, (2012), Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 109, 3593 - 3598
Building Bridges between Perceptual and Economic Decision-Making: Neural and Computational Mechanisms.
Summerfield C. and Tsetsos K., (2012), Front Neurosci, 6
Perceptual classification in a rapidly changing environment.
Summerfield C. et al, (2011), Neuron, 71, 725 - 736
Robust averaging during perceptual judgment.
de Gardelle V. and Summerfield C., (2011), Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 108, 13341 - 13346
Human Scalp Electroencephalography Reveals that Repetition Suppression Varies with Expectation.
Summerfield C. et al, (2011), Front Hum Neurosci, 5
Expectation and surprise determine neural population responses in the ventral visual stream.
Egner T. et al, (2010), J Neurosci, 30, 16601 - 16608
The first does the work, but the third time's the charm: the effects of massed repetition on episodic encoding of multimodal face-name associations.
Mangels JA. et al, (2010), J Cogn Neurosci, 22, 457 - 473
Economic value biases uncertain perceptual choices in the parietal and prefrontal cortices.
Summerfield C. and Koechlin E., (2010), Front Hum Neurosci, 4
Expectation (and attention) in visual cognition.
Summerfield C. and Egner T., (2009), Trends Cogn Sci, 13, 403 - 409
Two mechanisms for task switching in the prefrontal cortex.
Hyafil A. et al, (2009), J Neurosci, 29, 5135 - 5142
General mechanisms for making decisions?
Rushworth MF. et al, (2009), Curr Opin Neurobiol, 19, 75 - 83

Key Publications

Dissociable prior influences of signal probability and relevance on visual contrast sensitivity.
Wyart V. et al, (2012), Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 109, 3593 - 3598

Recent Publications

Robust sampling of decision information during perceptual choice.
Vandormael H. et al, (2017), Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 114, 2771 - 2776
Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex Encodes a Latent Estimate of Cumulative Reward.
Juechems K. et al, (2017), Neuron, 93, 705 - 714.e4
Neural Circuits Trained with Standard Reinforcement Learning Can Accumulate Probabilistic Information during Decision Making.
Kurzawa N. et al, (2017), Neural Comput, 29, 368 - 393
Perceptual Decision Making in Rodents, Monkeys, and Humans.
Hanks TD. and Summerfield C., (2017), Neuron, 93, 15 - 31
Visual Prediction Error Spreads Across Object Features in Human Visual Cortex.
Jiang J. et al, (2016), J Neurosci, 36, 12746 - 12763

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