Blog | Sainsbury Wellcome Centre

A new theory of planning

New research from Dr Kris Jensen and colleagues at SWC, UCL and the University of Oxford explores how the prefrontal cortex makes plans. Their work combines knowledge of neural processes known to occur in other brain systems with recent observations that different prefrontal neurons represent different steps of future behaviour. The result is a new theoretical model of how the prefrontal cortex plans behaviour, called a ‘spacetime attractor’, that is now published as a preprint.

10 October 2025

Photo of two budgerigars with text overlaid "SWC Speaker Series"

Do parrots really speak? Lessons in lexical access from budgerigars

Have you ever struggled to find the right word? Perhaps it was on the tip of your tongue, or your mind went blank altogether. This momentary lapse highlights a process known as ‘lexical access’ – the brain’s mechanism for retrieving words. SWC Seminar speaker Professor Michael A. Long is striving to understand how this process works. In his lab at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, Long studies a type of parrot called budgerigars. But what can parrots really teach us about human communication?

Centralising training in animal research

Training in animal research is often complex, as facilities must meet strict legal and ethical requirements as well as ensure staff competence and animal welfare. At the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre, a centralised framework for training is tackling this challenge, bringing together standardised tools, digital platforms, and close collaboration between researchers and animal care staff.

Young children riding bikes, overlaid with "SWC Speaker Series"

Ready, set, go

You never forget how to ride a bike. But how does the brain store these kinds of memories? And how do new skills not overwrite older ones? These questions are driving the work of Dr Nuo Li, Associate Professor of Neurobiology at Duke University. In this Q&A, Li talks about his work and its implications for understanding how we learn new skills, and his hopes for helping people with movement disorders.

25 September 2025

What can rodent societies teach us about our own? Insights from neuroscience

What can rodent societies reveal about the neural basis of social decision-making? In this Q&A, SWC Seminar speaker Dr Gowan Tervo discusses his innovative research using “Rat City” to explore how animals make decisions in complex social environments.

22 September 2025

Is the grass greener? Exploring how the brain decides when to move on

How do you decide whether to persist with what you’re doing or switch to something else? Neuroscientists believe that the answer to this question may lie in a canonical computation in the brain that guides behaviour under uncertainty. To explore this possibility, SWC Senior Research Fellow Dr Michael Bukwich has been studying how animals allocate more time to foraging in locations where they can acquire more resources.

17 September 2025

Working memory representations: practice makes perfect

From recalling a shopping list to remembering a six-digit activation code, we rely on our working memory every day. Surprisingly, the mechanisms underpinning this ability are not well understood. During a seminar at SWC, Professor Peyman Golshani presented his latest research into how working memory is represented in the brain during learning.

15 September 2025

Graphic illustration depicting learning. Credit: Gil Costa and Joana Carvalho

The neuroscience of learning: 12 tips to optimise your brain

Neuroscientists spend their careers studying how the brain acquires, processes, stores and retrieves information. Do they apply that knowledge in their own lives? We asked leading researchers for their top brain hacks when it comes to learning, and we’ve distilled their answers into 12 key tips.

Teaching, learning and the joy of discovery at BrainCamp Kosovo

Created by Dr Egzona Morina, a former PhD Student at SWC, BrainCamp brings neuroscience education to high school and undergraduate students in Kosovo. We spoke to two of the SWC volunteer teachers about their passion for neuroscience and what the experience taught them.

Illustration of writing on a wall at SWC with text overlaid "ENSS 2025/26 Winners"

SWC Emerging Neuroscientists Seminar Series 2025/26 winners announced

The Sainsbury Wellcome Centre is delighted to announce the winners of our 2025/26 Emerging Neuroscientists Seminar Series (ENSS). Now in its eighth year, the ENSS continues to spotlight early-career researchers who are advancing the field of systems neuroscience.

Graphic illustration depicting planning

Will we ever understand the brain? 12 leading neuroscientists reflect

We asked 12 leading neuroscientists to reflect on our understanding of the brain. We asked; will we ever truly understand the brain? How would we know if we had, and how long might it take to get there? While most suggest that a complete understanding may remain forever out of reach, they contemplate the nature of the question and the reasons for their own endeavours.

A new open-source system for behavioural research in neuroscience

Researchers have developed a new experimental system - Aeon, to measure brain activity, together with behaviour, in a naturalistic environment.