Research News

Remembering Adam Kampff (1979-2025)

We are deeply saddened that our colleague and dear friend Adam Kampff has passed away. Adam will be lovingly remembered by his family, friends, colleagues, and the thousands of students he has inspired over the years.

10 December 2025
SWC building next to BT Tower
Blog

Under pressure: Does everyday stress affect financial decisions?

Many of the negative effects of prolonged stress are well-known. In the brain, chronic stress reduces our ability to think. It makes solving problems, as well as regulating our behaviour, harder. But when it comes to the effects of stress on making decisions, especially choices that pit instant gratification against delayed reward, the picture is less clear. Dr Jeffrey Erlich from the SWC has published new research indicating that stress does play a role in the willingness to wait.

16 January 2026
Blog

Home sweet home: Automating novel object recognition

Researchers at the UK Dementia Research Institute, the University of Cambridge and the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre have developed and validated a fully automated novel object recognition test that runs entirely in a mouse’s home cage. By removing many sources of variability, the setup allows for more reliable measurements of memory, including long-term retention.

15 January 2026
Q&A

Inside the social brain: What mice teach us about learning from others

Dr Dimokratis Karamanlis at the University of Geneva is exploring social decision-making in mice. Using a task in which two mice make visual decisions side-by-side, he has shown that mice reliably copy a partner’s choice when their own visual cues are hard to interpret. Brain-wide analysis of neural activity shows that the medial prefrontal cortex becomes more active during these social decisions and plays a key role in this computation. As a winner of the SWC Emerging Neuroscientist Seminar Series 2025, Dr Karamanlis recently spoke at the SWC about his research. In this Q&A we discuss his latest findings.

17 December 2025