Grants

Featured Grants

Ionic Direct Current for Cortical Network Gain Modulation

• Dr Dimitrios Pinotsis
• NIHR Grant
• £426,527.64

Neural population gain is a critical parameter in brain computation, influencing processes such as attention, learning, sensory adaptation, and decision-making. Despite its importance, existing neuromodulation technologies lack the temporal and spatial precision needed to dynamically and locally modulate gain, creating a significant gap in our ability to study and manipulate neural circuits. This proposal addresses this gap by developing and refining ionic direct current (iDC) stimulation as a novel neuromodulation tool. Unlike existing methods such as optogenetics or drugs, iDC enables high-precision modulation of neural population gain while preserving natural activity, offering unparalleled potential for investigating and manipulating brain function.

Testing brain-time theoretic links between neural and behavioural estimates of the fidelity of human temporal perception

• Dr Kielan Yarrow
• Dr Elliot Freeman
• ESRC Research Grant
• £437,069

Find out more here: Testing brain-time theoretic links between neural and behavioural estimates of the fidelity of human temporal perception

Developing a quantitative model of narrative reasoning

• Dr James Yearsley
• British Academy Talent Development Awards
• £6,430
• 2024 to 2025

Humans are story-telling animals. Stories form part of how we conceive of our identities, how we understand our place in an organisation or community, and how we make sense of the world around us. Despite the importance of stories, their impact is typically only studied in a qualitative way. This project will support the PI to develop a computational model of story-based reasoning, which will allow us to make quantitative predictions about how people use stories to reason about the world, and how we can support them to tell better stories about themselves and their communities.

Are there limits to embodied visuospatial perspective taking?

• Dr Steven Samuel
• British Academy Small Research Grant
• £8,825.50
• 2024 to 2025

Understanding where things are from others' perspectives sometimes requires us to imagine ourselves where others are. What are the limits to this 'embodied perspective taking'? In the present study, adult participants will be asked to take the perspective of another person with two objects in front of them. Sometimes, they will be asked where one of the objects is ("Left" or "Right"), other times they will be asked what is on that person's left or right ("Object A" or "Object B"). If this ability is limited to the requirement to produce a spatial response (Left/Right), then fixing the participants' posture so that it is incongruent with the movement required to reach the desired perspective location should impair performance in this condition, but not when the response is to name the objects. The results will tell us how wide-reaching embodiment is as a solution to perspective taking problems.

Information encoded in brain face-selective regions

Neurodiversity in the workplace

• Professor Danai Dima
• Professor Sebastian Gaigg
• UKRI Innovate UK
• Autistica
• £248,087

Danai Dima and Sebastian Gaigg received funding of £248,087 from UKRI Innovate UK and Autistica for a 30-month Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) to validate and promote an accreditation scheme that demonstrates how well businesses include and support neurodivergent individuals in the workplace.

Limitations in bounded-rational probability updating

• Professor Emmanuel Pothos
• AFOSR Air Force Office of Scientific Research
• £163,895.55
• 01/11/2022

This research project concerns the application of quantum theory on cognitive modelling — specifically decision making. We call quantum theory the probability rules from quantum mechanics, without any of the physics. Why might quantum theory be relevant in cognition? Probabilities are at the heart of human behaviour, but representing probabilities classically (in the Bayesian sense) provides a challenge of intractable complexity. Quantum theory can be thought of as Bayesian theory, but in partitions: within a partition, everything is Bayesian, but between partitions non-classical effects (which appear like fallacies) arise. We are interested in understanding how these ideas can help us with various apparent behavioural paradoxes. One focus is the less is more effect and we have been running various experiments to diagnose it.

Using computational modelling to characterise and plan treatments for psychosis subtypes

• Dr Dimitrios Pinotsis
• MRC Medical Research Council
• £131,737.62
• 06/07/2022

This project focuses on the analysis of electrophysiology data from schizophrenia patients and animal models. The aim is to develop mechanistic descriptions of brain circuits and pathology. This is a UKRI Future Leaders Grant and is the result of a collaboration between City, UCL and Kings. The grant focuses on understanding pathophysiology at different levels (genetic, cellular, network) by analyzing multiscale brain data recorded using different modalities

All grants