Blog | Sainsbury Wellcome Centre

Diagram showing four images depicting behaviour, striatal dopamine, deep RL model and saddle points

Long-term learning trajectories: uncovering the role of dopamine

Dopamine plays an important role in learning. However, we know little about how it governs diverse learning across individuals over long periods of time. A research collaboration between the Lak Lab at the University of Oxford and the Saxe Lab at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre at UCL set out to investigate the role of dopamine and the rules that govern long-term learning.

Weighing risk, reward and uncertainty – one decision at a time

Dr Alicia Izquierdo is working to understand how the brain learns from experience and adapts to change. By studying rats as they make decisions about rewards, costs and risks, her lab at UCLA is uncovering how circuits in the brain's frontal regions work together to guide behaviour.

Flexible minds: how do we decide what to do next?

What enables the brain to imagine possibilities, weigh up options, and decide what to do next? In a recent SWC Seminar, Professor Loren Frank shared his research into the neural basis of cognitive flexibility – the brain’s amazing ability to adapt thoughts and behaviours in response to changing environments. In this Q&A, Professor Frank explains how his lab has developed naturalistic tasks in rats to reveal how the hippocampus represents not only where an animal is, but also where it could have been or might go next. He also explores the potential implications for understanding imagination and psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia.

What makes us human?

Dr Franck Polleux, based at Columbia University, is studying the unique properties of the human brain. How does it develop? How did we evolve? What makes us different from other species? Following his recent seminar at SWC, Franck sat down with us to discuss his work and interests, spanning from cave paintings to genetics.

Photo of adult Sepia officinalis (~6cm length) in an aquarium at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research with text overlaid "SWC Speaker Series"

Cuttlefish camouflage: understanding the brain mechanisms

Cuttlefish are masters of disguise, capable of transforming their appearance to blend seamlessly into their surroundings. This remarkable ability to camouflage is both visually and scientifically striking and scientists are now starting to reveal the complex neural mechanisms at play. In this interview, SWC Seminar speaker Dr Dominic Evans shares some of the challenges of studying these exotic creatures and the broader implications for discovering general principles of how brains drive behaviour.

What’s in a smell?

Dr Noel Federman’s research explores how the brain processes smells in context, showing that the meaning of an odour can shift depending on environment, experience, and emotion. Her work reveals that the olfactory cortex doesn’t just process smells but also integrates visual, behavioural, and motivational cues, especially after learning, enhancing the brain's ability to discriminate between odours.

Photo of staff students at Build a Brain project finale, London AI Campus. Credit: Camden Learning

‘Build a Brain’ course empowers next generation at London AI Campus

The ‘Build a Brain’ course equips students with the knowledge, equipment and tools to build their own robot, learning about everything from electrons to AI along the way. Their robot is modelled on the ultimate black box – the brain.

From holiday to histology: fostering global knowledge exchange

During a personal trip to Ghana, SWC Histology Research Scientist Jessica Broni-Tabi visited Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) to support histology training, share insights from SWC, and foster academic exchange. Her visit reconnected former colleagues, inspired students, and opened opportunities for future collaboration

Image of a book with the title "The Power of WHY" on the left page and "77 Human Needs" on the right page

Approaching a career crossroads in light of our values

What brought you into science and academia? What made you stay? SWC Research Fellow Jasmine Reggiani explores careers and values in academia.

An example hippocampal neuron that obtains a new place response after first firing in replay.

Imagining the future: exploring the role of hippocampal replay

Researchers from SWC, University of Oxford and Stanford University, set out to understand how humans and animals can learn very quickly to respond appropriately in new situations and environments by relying on previous experience. They hypothesised that building maps, instead of experiencing them state by state, could be the answer.

Mapping the brain’s superhighways within and across cortical hemispheres

When you watch a pianist play, you can see how their left hand is in perfect harmony with their right. Yet the two hands are controlled by different brain hemispheres. Researchers at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre at UCL and Jena University Hospital have been studying how this works by looking at the interconnectivity of different brain areas both within and across hemispheres.

It must be something I ate – How the brain learns what made you sick

Most of us have had the experience of being put off a particular food after it made us ill. But how does the brain know what made you sick? Dr Christopher Zimmerman, a postdoctoral researcher at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute, studies body-to-brain communication and how it influences nearly every aspect of our behaviour. Chris recently spoke at SWC as an ENSS winner, and in this Q&A he discusses his work on how our bodies and our brains connect.