Blog | Sainsbury Wellcome Centre

19 Things We Learned in 2019

As 2019 comes to a close, we count down the many things we learned this year.

13 December 2019

Sepiedeh Keshavarzi on the Role of the Retrosplenial Cortex in Navigation

SWC Senior Research Fellow Dr Sepiedeh Keshavarzi presents her research into how the brain helps animals keep track of their own motion, which is crucial for successful navigation.

20 November 2019

Jess Cardin Says It's a Good Time to Be a Systems Neuroscientist

Dr Cardin sat down with the SWC's Sarah Olesen to discuss how lab work evolves and the importance of perseverance.

24 October 2019

We collaborated on an open-source microscope. It could save researchers hundreds of hours and thousands of pounds.

19 September 2019

Indira Raman’s long, winding road to the cerebellum

The Bill and Gayle Cook Professor of neurobiology at Northwestern University visited the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre in September. She sat down with us to talk about how she got interested in neuroscience in the first place.

18 September 2019

Winners of the 2019 Emerging Neuroscientists Seminar Series Announced

The Sainsbury Wellcome Centre invites four early career neuroscientists to present exciting discoveries about the neural underpinnings of social behaviour, learning of novel skills and actions, and the effects of stress on brain function

2 September 2019

Neuroscience lecture

Learning rapidly from limited experience

Free will: perspectives from neuroscience

The question of whether we have free will has plagued philosophers for centuries. Recognising that neuronal activity lies at the root of all cognitive function, are we fully in control of our own actions, or is free will just an illusion? To seek answers to these questions, I spoke with leading neuroscientists and asked them to share their personal views.

Cartoon of neuroscientists headshots

21 recommended brain hacks from leading neuroscientists

Diversity of dopamine neurons

Dopamine neurons were traditionally thought to be activated by reward, but recent research has found that some are only activated by non-rewarding stimuli such as punishment or novelty. Professor Naoshige Uchida explains his lab’s research into the diversities of dopamine neurons and how the existence of multiple learning systems could be an adaptive strategy.

Students at computer illustration

How does the brain change during adolescence?

Understanding the preparatory activity of volitional movement

Every day we make thousands of specific movements that we have never made before. Our brain must coordinate these volitional movements ‘on the fly’ and this requires preparatory activity. Dr Nuo Li explains how his lab is trying to understand the preparatory activity of volitional movement.