Research

I am Marios Philiastides, Professor of Decision Neuroscience here in the School of Psychology &Neuroscience. Our group is interested in characterising the neural principles guiding perceptual and value-based decisions in humans, including reinforcement-guided learning and reward-related activity in cortical and subcortical systems. The computational techniques used in our lab are motivated by classical problems in signal processing, machine learning and statistical pattern recognition. Our ultimate goal is to go beyond mere "brain mapping" and begin looking for distributed neural representations to decipher how information flow through a "network" can lead to changes in behaviour. To this end we use a multimodal approach, which combines various forms of neuroimaging (EEG/MEG, fMRI, simultaneous EEG-fMRI [in 3T and 7T systems], combined EEG-pupillometry) as well as interventional techniques (TMS/tDCS) along with computational modelling and multivariate single-trial data analysis techniques to expose the relevant brain networks and their underlying computations. We perform these measurements in control and clinical groups to understand healthy and maladaptive decision making and develop neural markers for predicting treatment response in psychiatry. For more info see my lab webpage (link above).