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Dean Mobbs
Research Staff, Emotion Group
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Contact details
| E-mail address: | dean.mobbs@mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk |
| Telephone: | +44 (0)1223 355294 |
| Fax: | +44 (0)1223 359062 |
| Address: | MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, 15 Chaucer Road, Cambridge, CB2 7EF |
Research areas
I am currently a Senior Investigator Scientist in the Emotion Group at the MRC-Cognitive and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge (also see my Cambridge Neuroscience profile). Utilizing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), my research interests lie in the area of social and affective neuroscience. I currently co-supervise two University of Cambridge PhD students including Oriel Feldmanhall an Susanne Schweizer (both with Tim Dalgleish). In July, I will be starting a lab in the Dept. of Psychology at Columbia University, NYC. I will be looking for RAs, PhD students and Post-docs. More details to follow.
Selected Recent Publications
Mobbs, D. and Watt, C. (2011). There is nothing paranormal about near death experiences. Trends in Cognitive Science. Discovery, Scientific American.
Mobbs, D., Yu, R., Rowe, J.B., Eich, H., FeldmanHall, O., Dalgleish, T. (2010) Neural Activity associated with monitoring the oscillating threat value of a Tarantula. Proc Natl Acad Sci. USA.link LA Times, Telegraph, ABCNews, MSNBC, Discover, Reuters, Discovery Channel The Economist Yahoo USA Today Business Week Top Ten PNAS stories of 2010
Yu, R., Mobbs, D., Seymour, B., Calder, A.J. (2010) Insula and Striatum Mediate the Default Bias, Journal of Neuroscience, 30(44), 14702-14707.
Mobbs, D., Yu, R., Meyer, M., Passamonti, L., Seymour, B.J., Calder, A.J., Schweizer, S., Frith, C.D., Dalgleish, T. (2009) A key role for similarity in vicarious reward. 324, 900, Science. .pdf
Mobbs, D., Marchant, J., Hassabis, D., Seymour, B., Gray, M., Tan, G., Petrovic, P., Dolan, R.J., Frith, C.D. (2009). From Threat to Fear: The neural organization of defensive fear systems in humans. 12236-12243; Journal of Neuroscience. pdfDiscover magazine
Takahashi, H., Kato, M., Matsuura, M., Mobbs, D., Suhara, T., Okubo, Y. (2009). When Your Gain Is My Pain and Your Pain is My Gain: Neural Correlates of Envy and Schandenfreude. Science. .pdf commentary by Lieberman and Eisenberger. Press:Marie Claire and Schandenfreude Hidi video, ABC News, Wall Street Journal,
Mobbs, D., Petrovic, P., Marchant, J., Hassabis, D., Weiskopf, N., Seymour, B.,Dolan, R.J., Frith, C.D. (2007). When fear is near: threat imminence elicits prefrontal-periaqueductal gray shifts in humans. Science. 24;317(5841):1079-83. pdf (perspective by Stephan Meran). Media: BBC News, Scientific American, MSNBC News, Telegraph, Daily Mail, Guardian
Mobbs, D., Lau, H.C., Jones, O.D., Frith, C.D. (2007). Law, Responsibility and the Brain. PLoS Biology. 5(4):e103 pdf
Click here for full list and media.
Me having an Out-of-Body-Experience OBI.bmp
CBU publications
- MOBBS, D., Marchant, J., Hassabis, D., Seymour, B., Gray, M., Tan, G., Petrovic, P., Dolan, R.J., Frith, C.D (In Press) The neural organization of defensive fear systems in humans., Journal of Neuroscience #
- MOBBS, D., Hassabis, D., Marchant, J., Seymour, B., Weiskopf, N, Dolan, R.J., Firth, C.D. (In Press) Choking on the money: Reward based performance decrements are associated with midbrain activity, Psychological Science #
- FELDMANHALL, O., MOBBS, D., EVANS, D., HISCOX, L., NAVRADY, L., DALGLEISH, T. (2012) What We Say and What We Do: The Relationship Between Real and Hypothetical Moral Choices, Cognition, 123(3), 434-441 #
- SCHWEIZER, S. GRAHN, J., HAMPSHIRE, A. MOBBS, D. Asuquo-Brown, C., DALGLEISH, T. (2011) Brain Training: Does it train the brain? The neural substrates underlying gains in cognitive control capacity, Eighteenth Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, F61 #
- MOBBS, D., YU, R., ROWE, J.B., Eicha, H., FELDMANHALL, O., DALGLEISH, T. (2010) Neural activity associated with monitoring the oscillating threat value of a Tarantula, Proc Natl Acad Sci. USA, 107(47), 20582-20586 #
- YU, R., MOBBS, D., Seymour, B., CALDER, A.J. (2010) Insula and Striatum Mediate the Default Bias, Journal of Neuroscience, 30(44), 14702-14707 #
- DALGLEISH, T., DUNN, B.D. & MOBBS, D. (2009) Affective Neuroscience: Past, present and future, Emotion Review, 1(4), 355-368 #
- DALGLEISH, T., DUNN. B. & MOBBS, D. (2009) Neuroscience: Past, present and future, Emotion Review, 1(4), 355-368 #
- MOBBS, D. YU, R., Meyer, M., PASSAMONTI, L, Seymour, B., CALDER, A.J., SCHWEIZER, S., Frith,, C.D. & DALGLEISH, T. (2009) A key role for similarity in vicarious reward, Science, 324(5929), 900 #
- Takahashi, H., Kato, M., Matsura, M., MOBBS, D., Suhara, T., Okubo, Y (2009) When Your Gain is My Pain and Your Pain is My Gain: Neural Correlates of Envy and Schandenfreude, Science, 232(5916), 937-939 #
- YU, R., MOBBS, D. & CALDER, A. (2009) So close and so much invested: Goal proximity and sunk effort escalate frustration, 5th Society for Neuroeconomics conference, September 2009, Evanston, Illinois, USA. #
- YU, R., MOBBS, D. & CALDER, A. (2009) So close and so much invested: Goal proximity and sunk effort escalate frustration., 3rd Social and Affective Neuroscience conference, October 2009, New York, USA. #
- YU, R., MOBBS, D. & CALDER, A. (2009) Blocked reward translates into enhanced frustration and response force, EPFL-LATSIS Symposium, February 2009, Lausanne, Switzerland #
- Hagan, C.C., Hoeft, F., Mackay, A., MOBBS, D., Reiss, A.L (2008) Aberrant Neural Function during Emotion Attribution in Females with Fragile X Syndrome, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 47(12), 1443-1454 #
- Reiss, A.L., Hoeft, F., Tenforde, A.S., Chen, W., MOBBS, D. Mignot, E (2008) Anomalous Hypothalamic Responses to Humor in Cataplexy, PLoS One, 3(5), e2225 #

