Matthew Rushworth FRS
MA DPhil
Watts Chair and Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, Head of Department
- Head of Department
- Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator
- Associate Head for Research
Neural mechanisms of decision making and action selection
I am interested in how the brain makes decisions. Every day we make multiple choices about the best course of action to take in a variety of situations. My research is aimed at understanding the brain processes that allow us to work out how good the outcome of a choice might be and which allow us to make decisions between multiple choices.
I have a particular focus on the role played by areas of prefrontal and cingulate cortex. We have found that activity in these brain regions changes as a function of our expectations about how good a choice will be and when a decision is made.
When cognitive processes, such as those involved in decision-making, unfold they involve a number of different brain events. I am also interested in looking at the connexions between brain regions and the interactions they mediate during decision-making and attentional selection.
The lab's focus is on understanding how decision-making mechanisms work in the healthy brain. It is important to understand them because decision-making is such a fundamental aspect of our mental life. In addition, however, we think that some of these processes go awry when people suffer from psychological illnesses.
Key publications
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Social network size affects neural circuits in macaques.
Journal article
Sallet J. et al, (2011), Science, 334, 697 - 700
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Neural mechanisms of foraging.
Journal article
Kolling N. et al, (2012), Science, 336, 95 - 98
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Valuation and decision-making in frontal cortex: one or many serial or parallel systems?
Journal article
Rushworth MFS. et al, (2012), Curr Opin Neurobiol, 22, 946 - 955
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Effects of decision variables and intraparietal stimulation on sensorimotor oscillatory activity in the human brain.
Journal article
Gould IC. et al, (2012), J Neurosci, 32, 13805 - 13818
Recent publications
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The effect of apathy and compulsivity on planning and stopping in sequential decision-making.
Journal article
Scholl J. et al, (2022), PLoS Biol, 20
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Interactions between ventrolateral prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortex during learning and behavioural change.
Journal article
Monosov IE. and Rushworth MFS., (2021), Neuropsychopharmacology
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Polarity of uncertainty representation during exploration and exploitation in ventromedial prefrontal cortex.
Journal article
Trudel N. et al, (2021), Nat Hum Behav, 5, 83 - 98
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Accelerating the Evolution of Nonhuman Primate Neuroimaging.
Conference paper
PRIMatE Data Exchange (PRIME-DE) Global Collaboration Workshop and Consortium. Electronic address: michael.milham@childmind.org None. and PRIMatE Data Exchange (PRIME-DE) Global Collaboration Workshop and Consortium None., (2020), Neuron, 105, 600 - 603
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The macaque anterior cingulate cortex translates counterfactual choice value into actual behavioral change.
Journal article
Fouragnan EF. et al, (2019), Nat Neurosci, 22, 797 - 808