News

Researchers reveal neural circuits in the brainstem that are crucially involved in implementing decisions by controlling three fundamental behavioural states or strategies: perseverance, exploration and disengagement. The study in mice may help to further understand neuropsychiatric conditions including obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), autism and major depressive disorder.

Neuroscientists have discovered how the brain distinguishes between visual motion occurring in the external world from that caused by the observer moving through it. Known as the “motion-source separation problem,” researchers have long wondered how the brain achieves this critical sensory distinction. This is the first time scientists have pinpointed the precise mechanisms.

Professor Andrew Saxe, a Joint SWC/GCNU Group Leader at UCL, has been announced as a 2025 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in the United Kingdom Finalist in Life Sciences. This is the second time Professor Saxe has been named a Finalist after he was first recognised in the 2023 Blavatnik Awards.

Researchers at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre at UCL have unveiled the precise brain mechanisms that enable animals to overcome instinctive fears. Published today in Science, the study in mice could have implications for developing therapeutics for fear-related disorders such as phobias, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.

eLife has announced SWC Group Leader Tim Behrens as its new Editor-in-Chief. He will be the public face and champion of the journal, promoting it within the research community and driving forward its new approach to peer-review and publishing excellence in science.

We are delighted to share that SWC Research Fellow Dr Oliver Gauld has received a Wellcome Early-Career Award, commencing January 2025. This prestigious award recognises Dr Gauld’s innovative research on economic decision-making and his meaningful contributions to understanding the neural mechanisms underlying these complex processes.

Neuroscientists have discovered brain cells that form multiple coordinate systems to tell us “where we are” in a sequence of behaviours. These cells can play out different sequences of actions, just like a music box can be configured to play different sequences of tones. The findings help us understand the algorithms used by the brain to flexibly generate complex behaviours, such as planning and reasoning, and might be useful in understanding how such processes go wrong in psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia.

Researchers have discovered two distinct maps in the brain’s secondary motor cortex, which play a crucial role in spatial planning and navigation. The research, led by Dr Jeffrey Erlich, Group Leader at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre at UCL, provides a new approach to studying spatial planning in rodents and could have implications for understanding neurological conditions that affect spatial attention, such as stroke.

Neuroscientists have revealed how sensory input is transformed into motor action across multiple brain regions in mice. The research, conducted at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre at UCL, shows that decision-making is a global process across the brain that is coordinated by learning.

Researchers at SWC have discovered how two brain areas, neocortex and thalamus, work together to detect discrepancies between what animals expect from their environment and actual events. These findings enhance our understanding of predictive processing in the brain and could offer insights into how brain circuits are altered in autism and schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

SWC Research Fellow Dr Edmund Chong has received a Wellcome Early-Career Award. This award is a testament to Dr Chong’s innovative research and his commitment to advancing our understanding of spatial working memory.

Neuroscientists have discovered how the brain bidirectionally controls sensitivity to threats to initiate and complete escape behaviour in mice. These findings could help unlock new directions for discovering therapies for anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).