Matthew Mower

Matthew has an interest in understanding innate behaviours and learnt decision strategies and in trying to uncover the circuits which may enable them. Within the Branco Lab he primarily works on a project training mice in virtual reality to investigate defensive and hunting behaviours, as well as their circuits, using silicon probes and three-photon imaging.

Matthew’s BSc in Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of Manchester provided a broad background particularly in human cognition, where his project with Dr. Luke Jones probed human time perception. He then focused on systems neuroscience during his Neuroscience MSc at UCL. For his MSc project he contributed within the SWC’s Duan Lab, exploring the learning of stochastic decision-making in mice playing a competitive game and related this to pupillometry and cortical activity signals.