NIHRDataInsights/HRCSData huggingface dataset:
Title: Neuroesthetics.
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: This application for a Strategic Award is to develop the field of neuroesthetics, which aims to understand how the brain functions by studying its products. In particular it concentrates on products of the brain in art, literature and music, and applies the fruits of this research to experimental studies on the neural bases of aesthetic appreciation and creativity. Neuroesthetics depends upon knowledge and insights gained by both neurobiologists and humanists, and addresses issues that are of co ncern to science and society. A Strategic Award will help develop this field, which was born in the UK, and train future generations of students and researchers in tapping knowledge gained from apparently disparate fields to gain insights into the workings of the brain and into the human condition.


Research activity codes: 1.1 NORMAL BIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTIONING;1.2 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC PROCESSES
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;NEUROLOGICAL
Title: The neural basis of spatial and episodic memory in humans.
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: Reports of memory problems are common following brain injury or disease. This is because many parts of the brain are needed to support the system that allows us to remember where we are and what happened to us. By studying patients with damage to areas within the brain s memory network and using functional brain imaging, it has been possible to delineate the brain regions involved in supporting memories of our personal experiences. However, we remain largely ignorant about contributions indivi dual brain areas make within this network and how they interact with each other to produce coherent and consistent memories of the past. Intriguingly, this memory network overlaps considerably with that supporting navigation, and also imagining fictitious and future experiences. The aim of my research programme is to consider what memory, navigation and imagination have in common, and to map these common processes onto areas/area interactions within the brain network. Characterising the memor y system in this way is a novel approach, and the information derived may have important implications for patients with memory impairments. It is vital to know in detail how information is processed through the memory system in order to approach patient rehabilitation in a systematic and efficacious way.


Research activity codes: 1.1 NORMAL BIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTIONING;1.2 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC PROCESSES
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;NEUROLOGICAL
Title: The Neural Mechanisms Underlying Knowledge Acquisition in the Human Brain.
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: Each one of us has a vast repository of knowledge, accrued from our own observations, and a variety of media sources (e.g.books/television/internet). Imagine existing without access to this information, circumstances that tragically arise in certain neurological disorders. Our perceptual experiences would be entirely devoid of meaning, with the sight of a dog carrying the same significance as a lion, or even a motorcycle. Whilst much is known about where in the brain this information is stored, curiously little is understood about how we acquire this information in the first place. The present proposal will address this issue. I will define which brain regions underpin knowledge acquisition, and critically how they do so. To achieve this, I will adopt an innovative approach combining brain imaging, mathematical modelling and the testing of neurological patients. I will use these empirical findings to develop a theory of how the human brain acquires knowledge. By understanding how knowledge is acquired, it will be possible in the future to design strategies that enable individuals to maximize their learning potential. This will have far-reaching translational implications for enhancing learning in educational settings, in artificial intelligent systems, and in the ageing and neurological impaired populations (e.g.Alzheimer s disease).


Research activity codes: 1.1 NORMAL BIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTIONING;1.2 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC PROCESSES
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;NEUROLOGICAL
Title: The role of presynaptic NMDA receptors in sensory information processing and cerebellar synaptic plasticity in vivo.
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: The cerebellum is the part of the brain that is involved in fine motor control and motor learning. Although we understand its organisation quite well, we do not fully understand how the cerebellum learns from sensory experience. A central theory in neuroscience is that learning occurs via long-term changes in the strength of communication between neurons. Modifications in neuronal communication arise either by altering the release of a chemical neurotransmitter from one neuron or by altering t he reaction of the downstream neuron to the released neurotransmitter. One type of neurotransmitter receptor that can change the strength of communication is the presynaptic N-methyl D-asparate receptor (NMDAR). In this study, I will investigate the role of presynaptic NMDARs during sensory experience by recording changes in the electrical activity of single neurons before and after sensory stimulation (sound or touch). By using both genetically modified mice and selective drug application, I will identify which neurons possess presynaptic NMDARs and the pathways leading to their activation. These findings will provide us with important new insights into how sensory experience changes neuronal communication and how this relates to experience-dependent learning.


Research activity codes: 1.1 NORMAL BIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTIONING;1.2 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC PROCESSES
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;NEUROLOGICAL
Title: The neural basis of familiar face perception.
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: Recognizing the identities of people we know is a basic and important social act. However, while recognizing a familiar face is a simple and effortless process, we are much less proficient in identifying unfamiliar faces. Given the difference in behavioural performance, it is natural to ask whether familiar or unfamiliar faces have qualitatively different neural representations. The aim of this proposal is to establish how familiar and unfamiliar faces are processed in the brain. The project w ill use a combination of brain imaging techniques to understand how different regions of the brain interact in space and time to enable us to recognize an individual face.


Research activity codes: 1.1 NORMAL BIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTIONING;1.2 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC PROCESSES
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;NEUROLOGICAL
Title: Genetic dissections of hippocampal function.
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: The hippocampus is an important part of the brain, highlighted by people with hippocampal damage, who find it impossible to carry on a normal daily life, in part due to a devastating amnesia. It is therefore important we understand how the hippocampus works. In animal studies, we can do this by manipulating brain function in different ways. For example, I will make selective hippocampal lesions, or will study genetically modified mice which have mutations that affect how hippocampal cells commun icate with each other, and will assess how learning is affected. In humans, we mainly study the brain using imaging techniques such as fMRI that show which brain regions are activated when we engage in a particular mental task. However, imaging studies in humans and invasive studies in animals do not always yield the same conclusions. This could be due to the possibility that human and animal brains are very different, or it could reflect the fact that the different methodologies are measuring v ery different things. We will implant an electrode to measure brain activity, in a manner analogous to fMRI, as the animal performs a behavioural task. This will help to bridge the gap between human and animal research.


Research activity codes: 1.1 NORMAL BIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTIONING;2.1 BIOLOGICAL AND ENDOGENOUS FACTORS
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;NEUROLOGICAL
Title: Interleaving brain systems for recognition and episodic memory.
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: Understanding how brain structures interact so that an event can be remembered remains one the great challenges in neuroscience. The complexity of the task is magnified because any comprehensive memory model must describe interactions at numerous levels, from the brain region to the molecules controlling neurones. The proposed project, therefore, brings together five experts in animal learning, behavioural neuroscience, neuroanatomy, electrophysiology, and neurochemistry. The research is guid ed by specific models that separate two fundamental forms of memory (memory for day-to-day events and the recognition of past occurrences) into two distinct, but interlinked, neural systems These distinct, but related, classes of learning will be examined in detail. One goal will be to identify the brain systems and underlying mechanisms that support different forms of recognition memory. These include recognition of a novel object, a familiar object in a novel context, a familiar object in a novel spatial position, and how recently an object has been seen. Complementary research will examine those brain systems that support the construction of scenes and the ability to learn about specific events within a scene. A further goal is to study how and when the two systems for event memory and recognition memory interact.


Research activity codes: 1.1 NORMAL BIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTIONING;1.2 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC PROCESSES
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;NEUROLOGICAL
Title: Imaging biophysical mechanisms in learning and decision making.
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: The research proposes that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex performs a role that is central to the formation of a reward-guided decision. I plan to carry out MEG studies to examine activity in VMPFC at millisecond resolution, and relate this activity to crucial aspects of the decision. Furthermore, I aim to characterise this activity using biophysical models of realistic neurons that establish a competition between different potential choices. I plan to perform FMRI studies that dissociate the role of the VMPFC from that of the neighbouring orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), and further characterise the role of the OFC in learning and representing the values of different choices for input into the decision. I plan to develop tools for combining FMRI, MEG and diffusion-weighted connectivity data, and to use these tools to perform detailed functional and anatomical connectivity studies. These studies will examine the functional position of VMPFC and OFC in the network of brain regions t hat transforms abstract stimuli into decision variables, decides between them, and controls a motor output. I aim to use these data to extend current biophysical models of percpetual decision-making to specific problems encountered by a network of brain regions deciding on the basis of reward-goals.


Research activity codes: 1.1 NORMAL BIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTIONING;1.2 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC PROCESSES
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;NEUROLOGICAL
Title: Biophysical mechanisms of goal-based decision-making.
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: Whenever we make a decision, such as what to eat for breakfast, our brains weigh up the available options and decide what is best to do. There are regions in our brains that are very important for these decisions. When these regions are damaged, individuals start to make catastrophic decisions, such as gambling away all of their money. Our brain is made of cells that are seemingly very simple, and yet when these cells come together in particular arrangements, they can perform complex tasks like making decisions. In this project, I will perform experiments to try to understand what different jobs these different regions do, and how the cells in each region come together to carry out these jobs. By having people making simple decisions while being scanned, we can measure the activity in these different brain regions, and we can compare this activity to what we would expect from computer models of cells working in a particular way. Because we know exactly when each brain region is ac tive, we can also figure out how each brain region is influencing other brain regions, and therefore how the different regions come together to form the decisions that we make every day.


Research activity codes: 1.1 NORMAL BIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTIONING;1.2 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC PROCESSES
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;NEUROLOGICAL
Title: Neurocognitive Mechanisms of Learning and Representation of Numerical Information in the Numerate and Innumerate Brain.
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: Counting, adding and subtracting are indispensable skills for modern life, which most of us take for granted. In this project I will explore how we learn about numbers and how our brains represent numerical information. Using brain imaging and stimulation techniques I will examine the brain functions of normal participants who can manipulate numbers and also the brains of a group of people known as dycalculics who are the mathematical equivalents of dyslexics. I will train these participants usi ng different training programmes and observe how their behaviour, brain activity and responses change over time. Some changes will be functional (changes in HOW the brain deals with numbers), others will be anatomical (changes in WHICH PART of the brain deals with numbers). In the final stage I will use brain stimulation methods to modulate the brain areas that are involved in learning numerical information in typical participants, and adapt the technique for participants with dyscalculia to imp rove their learning, and facilitate functional and anatomical plasticity. Together, the various methods, including behavioural, brain imaging and brain stimulation, will generate scientifically important but also useful knowledge on the brain s capacity for change and remediation in learning how to manipulate and represent numerical information.


Research activity codes: 1.1 NORMAL BIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTIONING;2.1 BIOLOGICAL AND ENDOGENOUS FACTORS
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;NEUROLOGICAL
Title: The neural basis of action interpretation in human infants
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: Human infants are born into an inherently social environment in which they will learn most of what they need to know from others. In order to benefit from others actions, infants must interpret them as directed towards outcomes, rather than just movements in space. While many have demonstrated that infants can meaningfully interpret others actions, the proposed research will investigate how the developing brain makes this possible. A dominant theory concerning how we understand actions propose s that we use our own motor abilities to simulate what our goal would be if we were performing that action. However, these theories raise important questions concerning how infants could understand others actions, given their limited motor skills. This research will explore how the developing motor skills of infants impacts their action interpretation abilities. As the infant brain is undergoing massive development in the first years of life, it is likely that the dependence on others for lea rning has implications for brain development. This research will also explore how the differing types of action input infants receive, might affect this development. Answers to these questions are vital for understanding the consequences for brain development of impairments in attention to others , characteristic of autism.


Research activity codes: 1.1 NORMAL BIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTIONING;1.2 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC PROCESSES
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;NEUROLOGICAL
Title: Dissecting the contribution of anterior prefrontal cortex to decision making with computational, statistical and neuroimaging approaches.
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: One of the most fundamental questions in behavioural sciences is how organisms decide what is worth doing. We propose to use functional-MRI (fMRI), which provides an index of neural activity, to gain a better understanding of the neural computations that underpin learning and decision-making. We will focus our investigation on contributions of frontal polar cortex (FPC), an area thought to be crucial for decision-making but whose critical contribution and computational mechanism are unknown. With fMRI we can record brain activity, but we cannot test causal influences on behaviour and activity elsewhere in the brain. We therefore propose to combine specialized techniques for transiently disrupting activity in FPC and then recording its impact on interconnected brain areas. This will reveal precisely when during decision-making FPC is essential and how it exerts its influence over activity in interconnected brain areas. Understanding the function of a brain region requires an understanding of how it interacts with other regions as part of a network. We propose to combine the above approaches with a technique, diffusion-weighted-imaging, that allows visualization of anatomical connections between brain areas. This will enable examination of the relationship between the anatomical and functional connections of FPC with regions in its network.


Research activity codes: 1.1 NORMAL BIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTIONING;1.2 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC PROCESSES
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;NEUROLOGICAL
Title: Functional integration in the human medial temporal lobe during episodic memory encoding and retrieval.
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: Our memories for past events can contain a remarkable wealth of associative details, from the colour of an object that caught our attention to the background context in which it occurred. This ability, referred to as episodic memory , has been found to rely on a specific area in the brain, the medial temporal lobe (MTL). Interestingly, there is evidence for a division of labour within the MTL, such that memory for different associative details (e.g., perceptual features vs. background context m entioned above) is supported by different MTL subregions. However, given that our memories typically integrate multiple event details, these regions need to somehow work in concert to allow for successful episodic memory. The research proposed herein aims at elucidating how this integration is achieved by the MTL. Two complimentary neuroimaging methods will be used which together offer the unique combination of spatial and temporal resolution that is needed to reveal the dynamic interactions bet ween specific brain regions. The goal is to understand how the MTL flexibly engages and disengages coupling among its subregions, and how these regions interact in the service of remembering different types of event details.


Research activity codes: 1.1 NORMAL BIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTIONING;1.2 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC PROCESSES
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;NEUROLOGICAL
Title: Unity versus diversity of function within the prefrontal cortex.
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: Many neurological and psychiatric conditions lead to problems in the operation of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) which is a large brain region critical for the control of higher level thought and behaviour. To date its functions are far from being well understood. Our research project focuses for the first time on two main accounts of the functioning of a key part of this region. On the diversity accounts, PFC contains a number of separate systems with different abstract functions. On the unity acc ount PFC functions are carried out by a single system, responsible for general intelligence. This project will examine strategy production for problem solving and monitoring for errors - in patients with localised PFC damage. On the diversity accounts left lateral PFC damage should lead to difficulty with strategy production tasks, whilst right lateral PFC damage should lead to difficulty with monitoring tasks. In contrast, on the unity account differences in performance in these two classes of task should be explained by differences in general intelligence. Our findings will have implications for the brain basis of general intelligence and for the future rehabilitation of patients who have suffered damage to the PFC.


Research activity codes: 1.1 NORMAL BIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTIONING;1.2 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC PROCESSES
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;NEUROLOGICAL
Title: Timing expectations in the human brain.
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: A long history of psychological research has taught us to accept the counterintuitive notion that our perception is highly biased. Perceptual functions do not build a veridical copy of external reality for our musings. Instead, perception is adapted flexibly, moment-to-moment, to deliver the events that are relevant to our current behavioural goals. Selective attention is the set of functions that prioritizes and filters information-processing in order to determine the contents of our awarenes s and guide our actions. To date attention research has shown how signals coding predictions about the location, identity or simple features of relevant events can influence several stages of neural processing from perception to action. However, one essential dimension of our experience has been largely ignored timing. Current evidence suggests that expectations about the timing of events are pervasive, and can interact strongly with other types of expectation. The proposed set of experiments will combine non-invasive methods for imaging brain activity and for temporarily disrupting brain activity to reveal how temporal expectation is controlled in the human brain, and how it influences perception and action.


Research activity codes: 1.1 NORMAL BIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTIONING;1.2 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC PROCESSES
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;NEUROLOGICAL
Title: Cortical and mesolimbic dopamine interactions during cost-benefit value calculation.
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: In order to make appropriate choices, it is important not just to evaluate the anticipated benefits of a course of action, but also the costs that will be incurred such as the delay to be tolerated or energy to be expended to achieve a goal. Such calculations are complicated by the fact that the value of an item is not fixed but instead depends on the context in which a decision is being made. For instance, food will have a higher value to a hungry animal than to a sated one, and its precise v alue will depend how abundant the environment is with alternative foodstuffs. It is increasingly believed valuation and decision-making are guided by several interacting brain systems and that different aspects of value (for instance, an item s nutritional worth, availability and the actions we need to take to obtain it) may be represented in separate brain circuits. This proposal will investigate this issue, using combinations of techniques whereby the activity in one brain region is disrupte d while activity in another connected region is monitored as animals perform tasks probing the influence of different aspects of value on behaviour.


Research activity codes: 1.1 NORMAL BIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTIONING;1.2 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC PROCESSES
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;NEUROLOGICAL