Jill O`Reilly
MRC Career Development Fellow
- Associate Professor
Computer models of thought, behaviour and brain activity
In systems neuroscience, research typically categorizes brain structures in terms of their involvement in psychological processes (such as foraging, exploration, and attention) that describe the behaviour of the whole animal.
Yet at the cells- and circuits- level, there is no 'behaviour' per se, and neural processing is instead studied in terms of computations and the representation of information.
Therefore in order to understand the relationship between neural circuits and behaviour, it necessary to re-conceptualize psychological/behavioural constructs in terms of their constituent computations, and localize these computations, rather than behaviours, to specific neural structures and circuits.
The overarching aim of our research is to begin to develop a new taxonomy of cognitive processes in terms of their constituent computations, and to deliver models of computationally-specialized brain systems that are specified at the neural circuits level but at the same time make testable predictions about both behaviour and systems-level brain activity.
At least, that's the ultimate goal! In the mean time, you have to start somewhere...
Recent publications
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The Computational and Neural Substrates of Ambiguity Avoidance in Anxiety.
Journal article
Lawrance EL. et al, (2022), Comput Psychiatr, 6, 8 - 33
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Dissociable mechanisms of information sampling in prefrontal cortex and the dopaminergic system
Journal article
Kaanders P. et al, (2021), Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 41, 63 - 70
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Medial frontal cortex activity predicts information sampling in economic choice.
Journal article
Kaanders P. et al, (2021), J Neurosci
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Defensive freezing and its relation to approach-avoidance decision-making under threat.
Journal article
Klaassen FH. et al, (2021), Sci Rep, 11
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Corrigendum to "Nine-month-old infants update their predictive models of a changing environment" [Dev. Cognit. Neurosci. 38, August (2019), 100680].
Journal article
Kayhan E. et al, (2020), Dev Cogn Neurosci, 46