Cognition and emotion

Professor Ray Dolan FRS

The group studies how emotion influences cognition, using classical behavioural tools as well as neuroimaging methodologies, including fMRI and MEG.

We study this question from a number of perspectives, but have a major current focus being the influence of emotion on decision making.

There is now a consensus across fields such as behavioural ecology, microeconomics, machine learning and neuroscience that integration of sensory information with prior knowledge, regarding values and probabilities of outcomes, is a major determinant of overt behaviour.

The group seeks to harness insights from these fields to address the critical determinants of human decision making under uncertainty across a range of contexts, and in particular a variety of emotional contexts. The group also investigate the contribution of neuromodulators, such as dopamine and serotonin, as well as common genetic polymorphisms to behavioural control.

The UCL Institute of Neurology promotes teaching and research of the highest quality in neurology and the neurosciences. The Institute of Neurology and the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery are members of  UCL Partners, Europe's largest academic health science partnership.