Cognition & emotion

Professor Ray Dolan

The group studies how emotion influences cognition, using classical behavioural tools as well as neuroimaging methodologies, including fMRI and MEG. We study this question from a number of perspectives, but have a major current focus being the influence of emotion on decision making. There is now a consensus across fields such as behavioural ecology, microeconomics, machine learning and neuroscience that integration of sensory information with prior knowledge, regarding values and probabilities of outcomes, is a major determinant of overt behaviour. The group seeks to harness insights from these fields to address the critical determinants of human decision making under uncertainty across a range of contexts, and in particular a variety of emotional contexts. The group also investigate the contribution of neuromodulators, such as dopamine and serotonin, as well as common genetic polymorphisms to behavioural control.

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