Welcome to the CBU
The Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit (CBU) is an internationally leading centre for cognitive science and its translation into benefits for health and well-being. Over 120 scientists, students and support staff are based primarily at the Unit's Chaucer Road site, dedicated to research into aspects of human cognition including attention, emotion, language and memory. Specialist facilities include MRI, MEG and EEG scanners.
Help us with our research
Research at the CBU is dependent on members of the public who volunteer to take part in our studies. If you would like to help us (and earn some money), read about our volunteer panel. We welcome volunteers of all ages.
Latest news
April 2012: Mind Changers – Donald Broadbent remembered
A recent BBC Radio 4 programme explored the legacy of psychologist Donald Broadbent, who was Director of the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit from 1958-1974. Broadbent propagated his belief that psychology should be applied to practical problems, such as optimising human performance by the design of aircraft cockpits or nuclear reactor control rooms. He became a regular expert contributor on radio and TV, promoting psychology to the public. His classic book Perception and Communication, published in 1958, has been a major influence in the cognitive revolution in psychology in Britain. Donald Broadbent was an outstandingly successful Director of the Unit, and over his sixteen years here established our international reputation with a unique blend of pure and applied research. Professor Susan Gathercole, current Director of the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit and Alan Baddeley, Director from 1974-1996 who both worked with Broadbent contribute to the programme. You can listen here on BBC i-player.
April 2012: Student internship at House of Commons
The British Psychological Society is currently funding one of our PhD students, Theresa Dahm, to work at the House of Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology for three months. At any given time the Committee has several different inquiries to cover and the committee specialists summarise the evidence, write briefs for the MPs who sit on the committee, suggest questions for MPs to ask witnesses at the oral evidence sessions and draft the committee reports. The work is very varied and covers a wide range of science and technology issues, recent inquiries include Science in the Met Office and Malware & Cyber crime. Details of these, as well as summaries of what the different committees do can be found here.
This promises to be a valuable and productive internship for Theresa and we wish her well.
March 2012: John Duncan receives Heineken Award for Cognitive Science
Professor John Duncan, Assistant Director of the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, has been awarded the prestigious Heineken Award for Cognitive Science for his work in establishing the links between cognitive function and neural mechanism. The selection committee's citation noted John's "innovative, multidisciplinary research into the relationships between psychology, behaviour and intelligence on the one hand and neural processes on the other."
The Heineken Prizes are awarded every two years in a Special Session of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. They consist of five science prizes: the Dr A.H. Heineken Prizes for History, Medicine, Environmental science and Cognitive science and the Dr H P Heineken Prize for Biochemistry and Biophysics. Nominations are made by scientists from all over the world and committees of eminent scientists then select the winners. The work for which John won the prize looks at the psychological and neurological processes governing attention limits. With Robert Desimone he created the influential "biased competition" model using behavioural and neurophysiological studies. In the last 15 years, the model has become "a cornerstone of cognitive neuroscience". Originally conceived as a model of visual selective attention, it now influences work in fields as diverse as language and emotion. Another major tranche of John's work has used psychology, neurophysiology and computational theory to discover a neural basis for intelligence. In 2010 John published the popular science book How Intelligence Happens.
John will be travelling to Amsterdam in September to be presented with the $150,000 award. He commented, "There have been enormous strides in establishing the discipline of cognitive science and I think it shows great vision on the part of the Heineken Foundations in recognising this progress with establishment of a Prize. It is of course a delight and honour to be named as a recipient.
"This is inherently cross-disciplinary work and needs stable, integrated support. For this, an MRC Unit is a superb environment and I have been splendidly lucky to be able to work in this way, and to witness a real coming of age in our discipline. We can only imagine what the future holds for the field and this prize that honours it."
John was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (2008) and the British Academy (2009).
We're delighted to give him our warmest congratulations on this honour.