Blog | Sainsbury Wellcome Centre

Escape Decision Neurons - Mouse Midbrain

Masters of Escape: Investigating the neural circuits for survival

Escape behaviour is hard-wired into the neural pathways of a species, but neuroscientists remain unsure of exactly how it works. At the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre we’re trying to figure it out.

By Oriol Pavon Arocas

24 February 2020

In Conversation: Laure Rondi-Reig and Tom Otis discuss the cerebellum

When Dr Rondi-Reig started her PhD, the idea that cerebellum played a role in spatial cognition was a hard sell. A lot has changed since then.

13 February 2020

Dr Ann Clemens is looking for the neural mechanisms of kinship

Ties that Bind: Dr Ann Clemens is looking for the neural mechanisms of kinship

27 January 2020

19 Things We Learned in 2019

As 2019 comes to a close, we count down the many things we learned this year.

13 December 2019

Sepiedeh Keshavarzi on the Role of the Retrosplenial Cortex in Navigation

SWC Senior Research Fellow Dr Sepiedeh Keshavarzi presents her research into how the brain helps animals keep track of their own motion, which is crucial for successful navigation.

20 November 2019

Jess Cardin Says It's a Good Time to Be a Systems Neuroscientist

Dr Cardin sat down with the SWC's Sarah Olesen to discuss how lab work evolves and the importance of perseverance.

24 October 2019

We collaborated on an open-source microscope. It could save researchers hundreds of hours and thousands of pounds.

19 September 2019

Indira Raman’s long, winding road to the cerebellum

The Bill and Gayle Cook Professor of neurobiology at Northwestern University visited the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre in September. She sat down with us to talk about how she got interested in neuroscience in the first place.

18 September 2019

Winners of the 2019 Emerging Neuroscientists Seminar Series Announced

The Sainsbury Wellcome Centre invites four early career neuroscientists to present exciting discoveries about the neural underpinnings of social behaviour, learning of novel skills and actions, and the effects of stress on brain function

2 September 2019

Neuroscience lecture

Learning rapidly from limited experience

Free will: perspectives from neuroscience

The question of whether we have free will has plagued philosophers for centuries. Recognising that neuronal activity lies at the root of all cognitive function, are we fully in control of our own actions, or is free will just an illusion? To seek answers to these questions, I spoke with leading neuroscientists and asked them to share their personal views.

Cartoon of neuroscientists headshots

21 recommended brain hacks from leading neuroscientists