Dr Ashley Luckman (University of Exeter) Abstract Reason-based accounts of decision-making, such as Query Theory, have been successfully applied to a range of binary preferential choice phenomena, such as default, framing and immediacy effects. In a series of Experiments we explore the role reasons play in multi-alternative choice, particularly the attraction effect. In Experiment 1 […]

A/Prof Mac Shine (University of Sydney) Abstract Perception is thought to rely upon evolving activity within a recurrent, distributed thalamocortical network whose interconnections are modulated by bursts of noradrenaline. To test this hypothesis, we leveraged a combination of pupillometry, fMRI and recurrent neural network modelling of an ambiguous figures task. Shifts in the perceptual interpretation […]

Dr Laura Bradfield (UTS) Abstract Neuroinflammation has been observed in the striatum and hippocampus of individuals with psychiatric disorders and neurodegenerative diseases to different extents, but whether this causes the behavioural disturbances experienced by such individuals or is simply another symptom of their disease is unknown. In our lab we have begun to piece together […]

Dr Alexis Whitton (UNSW) Abstract In the face of escalating rates of depression among young people, effective and scalable treatments are urgently required. Although a range of different interventions have been found to be effective, the pivotal question is Which treatments yield the greatest benefit, and for whom? This talk explores a new approach to […]