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Laurel Morris

Contact information

Email
laurel.morris@ndcn.ox.ac.uk

Research groups

NeuroSCOPE Lab

Laurel S. Morris

PhD

Prof. Morris is an Associate Professor in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences and Experimental Psychology. She is a cognitive neuroscientist who specializes in the development of cognitive and digital measures of motivation, self-agency, and reward and punishment processing. Prof. Morris also specializes in optimizing high-resolution multi-modal neuroimaging techniques for precision imaging and in the application biofeedback-based interventions for psychiatric symptom management. Her work applies these measures and tools to better understand depression, anxiety and addiction.

Prof. Morris is open to accepting new students.

Key publications

Effects of KCNQ potassium channel modulation on ventral tegmental area activity and connectivity in individuals with depression and anhedonia.

Morris LS. et al, (2025), Mol Psychiatry, 30, 3686 - 3694

Cross-species dissection of the modular role of the ventral tegmental area in depressive disorders.

Morris LS. et al, (2025), Neuroscience, 569, 248 - 266

Ketamine normalizes subgenual cingulate cortex hyper-activity in depression.

Morris LS. et al, (2020), Neuropsychopharmacology, 45, 975 - 981

Fronto-striatal organization: Defining functional and microstructural substrates of behavioural flexibility.

Morris LS. et al, (2016), Cortex, 74, 118 - 133

Recent publications

Effects of the KCNQ (Kv7) Channel Opener Ezogabine on Resting-State Functional Connectivity of Striatal Brain Reward Regions, Depression, and Anhedonia in Major Depressive Disorder: Results From a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Chowdhury A. et al, (2025), Biol Psychiatry, 98, 568 - 577

Randomized, Controlled Trial of the Novel, Potent Kv7 Channel Opener Azetukalner in Individuals with Major Depressive Disorder and Anhedonia: Neural Response to Reward, Clinical Outcomes, and Safety.

Murrough J. et al, (2025), Res Sq

VTA network dominance in depression confers distinct psychopathological states through blunted neural tracking of reward prediction errors.

Beltrán J. et al, (2025)

Spatiotemporal asymmetries on brain energy landscape uncover system entrapment related to depression severity.

Kilic BÜ. et al, (2025)

Effects of KCNQ potassium channel modulation on ventral tegmental area activity and connectivity in individuals with depression and anhedonia.

Morris LS. et al, (2025), Mol Psychiatry, 30, 3686 - 3694

Cross-species dissection of the modular role of the ventral tegmental area in depressive disorders.

Morris LS. et al, (2025), Neuroscience, 569, 248 - 266

Intrinsic and extrinsic control impact motivation and outcome sensitivity: the role of anhedonia, stress, and anxiety.

Mehta MM. et al, (2024), Psychol Med, 54, 1 - 10

Relationships between depression, anxiety, and motivation in the real-world: Effects of physical activity and screentime.

Beltrán J. et al, (2024), medRxiv

Reward-related self-agency is disturbed in depression and anxiety.

Mehta MM. et al, (2023), PLoS One, 18

Valence-dependent self-agency is disturbed in depression and anxiety

Mehta MM. et al, (2022)

On what motivates us: a detailed review of intrinsic v. extrinsic motivation.

Morris LS. et al, (2022), Psychol Med, 52, 1801 - 1816

ltered hippocampus and amygdala subregion connectome hierarchy in major depressive disorder.

Jacob Y. et al, (2022), Transl Psychiatry, 12

Intrasubject functional connectivity related to self-generated thoughts.

Brennan D. et al, (2021), Brain Behav, 11

ddictions NeuroImaging Assessment (ANIA): Towards an integrative framework for alcohol use disorder.

Voon V. et al, (2020), Neurosci Biobehav Rev, 113, 492 - 506

Effects of the KCNQ channel opener ezogabine on functional connectivity of the ventral striatum and clinical symptoms in patients with major depressive disorder.

Tan A. et al, (2020), Mol Psychiatry, 25, 1323 - 1333

Ketamine normalizes subgenual cingulate cortex hyper-activity in depression.

Morris LS. et al, (2020), Neuropsychopharmacology, 45, 975 - 981

The role of the locus coeruleus in the generation of pathological anxiety.

Morris LS. et al, (2020), Brain Neurosci Adv, 4

Neural correlates of rumination in major depressive disorder: A brain network analysis.

Jacob Y. et al, (2020), Neuroimage Clin, 25

Sub-millimeter variation in human locus coeruleus is associated with dimensional measures of psychopathology: An in vivo ultra-high field 7-Tesla MRI study.

Morris LS. et al, (2020), Neuroimage Clin, 25

Dissociating self-generated volition from externally-generated motivation.

Morris LS. et al, (2020), PLoS One, 15

Ultra-high field MRI reveals mood-related circuit disturbances in depression: a comparison between 3-Tesla and 7-Tesla.

Morris LS. et al, (2019), Transl Psychiatry, 9

Modulation of Resting Connectivity Between the Mesial Frontal Cortex and Basal Ganglia.

Popa T. et al, (2019), Front Neurol, 10

Stress, Motivation, and the Gut-Brain Axis: A Focus on the Ghrelin System and Alcohol Use Disorder.

Morris LS. et al, (2018), Alcohol Clin Exp Res

nterior cingulate cortex connectivity is associated with suppression of behaviour in a rat model of chronic pain.

Morris LS. et al, (2018), Brain Neurosci Adv, 2

Binge drinking differentially affects cortical and subcortical microstructure.

Morris LS. et al, (2018), Addict Biol, 23, 403 - 411

Naltrexone ameliorates functional network abnormalities in alcohol-dependent individuals.

Morris LS. et al, (2018), Addict Biol, 23, 425 - 436

Impaired awareness of motor intention in functional neurological disorder: implications for voluntary and functional movement.

Baek K. et al, (2017), Psychol Med, 47, 1624 - 1636

Disrupted resting-state brain network properties in obesity: decreased global and putaminal cortico-striatal network efficiency.

Baek K. et al, (2017), Psychol Med, 47, 585 - 596

Compulsive sexual behavior: Prefrontal and limbic volume and interactions.

Schmidt C. et al, (2017), Hum Brain Mapp, 38, 1182 - 1190

Distinct cortico-striatal connections with subthalamic nucleus underlie facets of compulsivity.

Morris LS. et al, (2017), Cortex, 88, 143 - 150

Decisional impulsivity and the associative-limbic subthalamic nucleus in obsessive-compulsive disorder: stimulation and connectivity.

Voon V. et al, (2017), Brain, 140, 442 - 456

mygdala and dlPFC abnormalities, with aberrant connectivity and habituation in response to emotional stimuli in females with BPD.

Dudas RB. et al, (2017), J Affect Disord, 208, 460 - 466

Disrupted avoidance learning in functional neurological disorder: Implications for harm avoidance theories.

Morris LS. et al, (2017), Neuroimage Clin, 16, 286 - 294

Jumping the Gun: Mapping Neural Correlates of Waiting Impulsivity and Relevance Across Alcohol Misuse.

Morris LS. et al, (2016), Biol Psychiatry, 79, 499 - 507

Biases in the Explore-Exploit Tradeoff in Addictions: The Role of Avoidance of Uncertainty.

Morris LS. et al, (2016), Neuropsychopharmacology, 41, 940 - 948

Fronto-striatal organization: Defining functional and microstructural substrates of behavioural flexibility.

Morris LS. et al, (2016), Cortex, 74, 118 - 133

Novelty, conditioning and attentional bias to sexual rewards.

Banca P. et al, (2016), J Psychiatr Res, 72, 91 - 101

Dimensionality of Cognitions in Behavioral Addiction.

Morris LS. and Voon V., (2016), Curr Behav Neurosci Rep, 3, 49 - 57

Motivation and value influences in the relative balance of goal-directed and habitual behaviours in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Voon V. et al, (2015), Transl Psychiatry, 5

Waiting Impulsivity: The Influence of Acute Methylphenidate and Feedback.

Voon V. et al, (2015), Int J Neuropsychopharmacol, 19

Risk-taking in disorders of natural and drug rewards: neural correlates and effects of probability, valence, and magnitude.

Voon V. et al, (2015), Neuropsychopharmacology, 40, 804 - 812

Neural correlates of sexual cue reactivity in individuals with and without compulsive sexual behaviours.

Voon V. et al, (2014), PLoS One, 9

Hippocampus

Vago DR. et al, (2014), 566 - 570

Dissociable influences of skewness and valence on economic choice and neural activity.

Wright ND. et al, (2013), PLoS One, 8

Manipulating the contribution of approach-avoidance to the perturbation of economic choice by valence.

Wright ND. et al, (2013), Front Neurosci, 7