Why do we sometimes freeze when we should act—or act when we shouldn’t? These behaviours reflect Pavlovian biases: automatic tendencies to approach rewards and avoid punishments. Though often useful, such biases can interfere with decision-making and contribute to anxiety and depression. In a preregistered, double-blind study with 800 participants, Hugo Fleming and colleagues tested whether […]

Many congratulations to MRC CBU’s PhD student Annalise Whines, who won the runner-up prize at the MRC Max Perutz Science Communication Awards in the video category. Annalise’s video was titled ‘Does motivation change across the menstrual cycle?’ Annalise said: “I’m thrilled to have been awarded the runner-up prize and to be able to publicly share […]

New research by Henderson and colleagues found graded distinctions among typical amnestic and atypical (language, visual) Alzheimer’s phenotypes. The findings support a transdiagnostic, multidimensional model of AD that spans all subtypes. Read the full paper here: Henderson, S.K., Murley, A.G., Cope, T.E. et al. Multidimensional cognitive deficits in the typical and atypical variants of Alzheimer’s disease. Alz Res […]

How do signals from the body shape the way we think and feel? A new preregistered study led by Hugo Fleming at the University of Cambridge explores how glucose control—the body’s ability to regulate blood sugar—relates to how people learn from rewards. The research team recruited 48 adults who completed a glucose tolerance test, a […]

We are deeply saddened by the unexpected passing of Professor Friedemann Pulvermüller, a former Programme Leader and Head of EEG/MEG at the CBU. Friedemann came to the CBU in 2000, bringing modern EEG methods to the Unit, and in 2005 leading our bid to establish the MEG laboratory. In his time at the CBU, his […]

A specialist form of therapy could offer hope for some of the most vulnerable young PTSD sufferers – according to a University of East Anglia study. Researchers investigated the effectiveness of trauma-focused cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) for treating children who had been through multiple traumas such as abuse, violence or serious accidents. While this type of […]

Congratulations to MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit’s Annalise Whines, who won a British Association of Psychopharmacology (BAP) Poster Prize for her poster titled “A computational approach to understanding motivational decision-making across the menstrual cycle”. Each year, four prizes are awarded at the annual  BAP Summer Meeting, two for clinical and two for non-clinical posters. […]

Ever wish you could stop a thought in its tracks? Whether it is a painful memory, an intrusive worry, or just a distracting mental image, our brains can actually learn to shut those thoughts down, and a major new review reveals how. A recent review article published in Nature Reviews Neuroscience (featured on the journals cover) by researchers […]