News

Neuroscientists have discovered brain cells that form multiple coordinate systems to tell us “where we are” in a sequence of behaviours. These cells can play out different sequences of actions, just like a music box can be configured to play different sequences of tones. The findings help us understand the algorithms used by the brain to flexibly generate complex behaviours, such as planning and reasoning, and might be useful in understanding how such processes go wrong in psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia.

Researchers have discovered two distinct maps in the brain’s secondary motor cortex, which play a crucial role in spatial planning and navigation. The research, led by Dr Jeffrey Erlich, Group Leader at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre at UCL, provides a new approach to studying spatial planning in rodents and could have implications for understanding neurological conditions that affect spatial attention, such as stroke.

Neuroscientists have revealed how sensory input is transformed into motor action across multiple brain regions in mice. The research, conducted at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre at UCL, shows that decision-making is a global process across the brain that is coordinated by learning.

Researchers at SWC have discovered how two brain areas, neocortex and thalamus, work together to detect discrepancies between what animals expect from their environment and actual events. These findings enhance our understanding of predictive processing in the brain and could offer insights into how brain circuits are altered in autism and schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

SWC Research Fellow Dr Edmund Chong has received a Wellcome Early-Career Award. This award is a testament to Dr Chong’s innovative research and his commitment to advancing our understanding of spatial working memory.

Neuroscientists have discovered how the brain bidirectionally controls sensitivity to threats to initiate and complete escape behaviour in mice. These findings could help unlock new directions for discovering therapies for anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Following our full accreditation from AAALAC International in November 2022, Dr Eleni Amaniti, Head of Neurobiological Research Facility at SWC, submitted an abstract to the international conference based on the improvements made to our programmes during the accreditation process.

Researchers in the Akrami Lab have revealed that recency bias in working memory naturally leads to central tendency bias, the phenomenon where people’s (and animals’) judgements are biased towards the average of previous observations. Their findings may hint at why the phenomenon is so ubiquitous.

Researchers at SWC have revealed how information from multiple senses is combined early in the cortex at the level of primary sensory areas. This multisensory integration was traditionally thought to be carried out by higher brain areas, with the primary sensory areas believed to only process single senses. These findings further challenge the long-held view that primary sensory cortical areas work in complete isolation.

We are delighted to announce that Professor Linda Wilbrecht has joined SWC as a Resident Scholar from January 2024 to June 2024. Linda's mechanistic work on basal ganglia function and how scarcity and uncertainty impact learning and decision making on a range of timescales nicely complement ongoing work at the SWC.

We are delighted to announce that Athena Akrami, SWC Group Leader, has been selected by the European Research Council (ERC) to receive a Consolidator Grant. The award of €2 million over five years will enable Athena to continue to pursue her long-term research endeavours.