Professor Wolfram Schultz
University position
Professor of Neuroscience
Professor Wolfram Schultz is pleased to consider applications from prospective PhD students.
Departments
Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience
Institutes
Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute
Home page
http://www.pdn.cam.ac.uk/staff/s... (personal home page)
Research Themes
Interests
Please see http://www.neuroscience.cam.ac.uk/news/article.php?permalink=a8feeeff87 for details of current available positions.
Our group is interested to relate the mechanics of brain activity to measurable behaviour. We combine neurophysiological, imaging and behavioural techniques to investigate the neural correlates of goal-directed. We are interested in outcome value (in particular reward) signals in specific brain structures such as dopamine neurons, striatum, frontal cortex and amygdala. These rapid, global, evaluative and supervising neural signals may play a role in decision-making and choice behaviour. In investigating these outcome-coding mechanisms we try to establish a common biological basis for animal learning theory, microeconomic utility and game theories, and behavioural ecology. The larger background is to consider the brain in its capacity for processing reward information as an essential organ for assuring the fitness for survival in an evolutionary framework.
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Research Focus
KeywordsReward Value Uncertainty Action neural circuit |
Clinical conditionsAddiction Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder Huntington's disease Learning disbilities Movement disorders Obsessive compulsive disorder Parkinson's disease Schizophrenia |
Equipment
Behavioural analysis
Electrophysiological recording techniques
Magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
Collaborators
CambridgeChristopher Harris | United KingdomRay Dolan Web: http://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/Dolan/ InternationalPeter Bossaerts Web: http://www.hss.caltech.edu/~pbs/ Masamichi Sakagami Web: http://www.tamagawa.ac.jp/sisetu/... Masataka Watanabe Web: http://tmin.ac.jp/english... |
Key publications
Bermudez MA, Schultz W (2010), “Responses of amygdala neurons to positive reward predicting stimuli depend on background reward (contingency) rather than stimulus-reward pairing (contiguity)” J Neurophysiol 103: 1158-1170
Burke CJ, Tobler PN, Baddeley M, Schultz W (2010), “Neuronal mechanisms of observational learning” Proc Natl Acad Sci (USA) 107, 14431-14436
Kobayashi S, Pinto de Carvalho O, Schultz W (2010), “Adaptation of reward sensitivity in orbitofrontal neurons” J Neurosci 30: 534-544
O'Neill M, Schultz W (2010), “Coding of reward risk distinct from reward value by orbitofrontal neurons” Neuron 68: 789-800
Tobler PN, Christopoulos GI, O'Doherty JP, Dolan RJ, Schultz W. (2009), “Risk-dependent reward value signal in human prefrontal cortex. ” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (USA) 106: 7185-7190
Kobayashi S, Schultz W (2008), “Influence of reward delays on responses of dopamine neurons” J Neurosci 28: 7837-7846
Tobler PN, O’Doherty JP, Dolan R, Schultz W (2007), “Reward value coding distinct from risk attitude-related uncertainty coding in human reward systems” J Neurophysiol 97:1621-1632 Details
Schultz W (2006), “Behavioral theories and the neurophysiology of reward” Ann Rev Psychol 57:87-115
Fiorillo CD, Tobler PN, Schultz W (2003), “Discrete coding of reward probability and uncertainty by dopamine neurons” Science 299:1898-1902
Publications
2011
Schultz W (2011), “Potential vulnerabilities of neuronal reward, risk, and decision mechanisms to addictive drugs” Neuron 69: 603-617
Research and Collaboration
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