News

Understanding how brain areas communicate is one of the oldest questions in neuroscience. Researchers at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre at UCL used causal techniques to uncover how two neocortical areas in the brain communicate with one another and found that their influence on each other changes over much faster-timescales than previously thought.

Neuroscientists at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre at UCL observed the neuronal activity in the basolateral amygdala (BLA) while rats freely engaged with a variety of different ethological stimuli. Interactions with ethological stimuli are relevant to the animal’s survival and to the propagation of its genes, and include food, prey and conspecifics. In a new study, published today in Cell Reports, the researchers demonstrate strong responses to these classes of events in the BLA.

Neuroscientists at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre at UCL studied the flexibility of escape behaviour in mice. In a new study, published today in Current Biology, the researchers show that, while escape behaviour can be robustly elicited in a laboratory setting, mice can nonetheless readily learn to suppress their escape response, effectively ignoring stimuli that are determined to pose no threat.

Neuroscientists at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre at UCL explored how mice learn about their spatial environment and the behavioural strategies they use to take the shortest route to a shelter when they are scared. In a new study, published today in Current Biology, the researchers show that mice learn the shortest route to escape after only 10 minutes of exploring the environment and they do not need previous experience of threat.

Four world-leading scientists will talk about love and its neural basis in the brain. SWC is hosting the 7th Emotions Brain Forum, an itinerant series of conferences featuring women speakers only and dedicated to Nobel Laureate Rita Levi Montalcini.

We are deeply saddened that Richard Bennett, who served as a Computer Officer at SWC and GCNU from 2016, passed away last month at the age of 32. Richard passed away peacefully in his home in Woking and will be lovingly remembered by his partner Emma, family, friends and colleagues, especially those from the IT team, who worked closely with him over many years.

Could a PhD be the right fit for me? To help answer this question for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre was excited to host the first ever In2research Away Day.

The Sainsbury Wellcome Centre (SWC) and Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit (GCNU) at UCL are pleased to announce we have received an Athena Swan Bronze Award for our commitment to promoting gender equality.

We are delighted to announce that Dr Jeffrey Erlich has joined the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre as a Group Leader. Jeffrey Erlich’s lab at SWC will focus on three central research topics: the neurobiology of economic preferences, social cognition and spatial cognition.

Researchers at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre at UCL have discovered how individual and networks of cells in an area of the brain called the retrosplenial cortex encode angular head motion in mice to enable navigation both during the day and at night.

BrainGlobe, an open-source, community-driven platform for computational neuroanatomy, has today been awarded two grants from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI).

The Sainsbury Wellcome Centre is delighted to announce funding and support for a new programme, In2research, from social mobility charity In2scienceUK.