Our group is interested to relate the mechanics of brain activity to measurable behaviour. We combine behavioural, neurophysiological and neuroimaging techniques to investigate the neural mechanisms of learning, goal-directed behaviour and economic decision making at the level of single neurons and individual brain structures. We use behavioural concepts from animal learning theory and economic utility theory to study the processing of reward information in specific brain regions, including the dopamine system, striatum, orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala. Further details are described in Scholarpedia (Reward and Reward signals). For more information on neuroeconomics see here.

Colleagues
Raymundo Baez (MSc MPI Tuebingen)
Maria Bermudez (PhD Santiago de Compostela)
Chris Burke (PhD student w/M. Baddeley) (BSc Univ Cambridge)
Helen Cousins (Computer Associate) (MSc Univ Cambridge)
Ryan Haynes (PhD student w/D. Weinberger, NIH) (MSc Cambridge)
Shunsuke Kobayashi (MD, PhD Univ Tokyo)
Martin O’Neill (PhD Univ St. Andrews)
Philippe Tobler (PhD Univ Cambridge)

Main Collaborations
Richard Andersen (Caltech)
Michelle Baddeley, Christopher Harris & Aldo Rustichini (Economics Cambridge)
Peter Bossaerts (Tech Univ Lausanne)
Anthony Dickinson (Experimental Psychology Cambridge)
Paul Fletcher (Psychiatry Cambridge)
Masamichi Sakagami (Tamagawa University Tokyo)

Main funding
Wellcome Trust
MRC-Wellcome to Behav Clin Neurosci Inst Cambridge
Leverhulme Trust to M. Baddeley
Moore Foundation at Caltech

Selected publications

Kobayashi S & Schultz W. Influence of reward delays on responses of dopamine neurons. J Neurosci 28: 7837-7846, 2008

Tobler PN, O’Doherty JP, Dolan R & Schultz W. Reward value coding distinct from risk attitude-related uncertainty coding in human reward systems. J Neurophysiol 97: 1621-1632, 2007

Schultz W. Multiple dopamine functions at different time courses. Ann Rev Neurosci 30: 259-288, 2007

Kobayashi S, Nomoto K, Watanabe M, Hikosaka O, Schultz W & Sakagami M. Influences of rewarding and aversive outcomes on activity in lateral prefrontal cortex. Neuron 51: 861-870, 2006

Schultz W. Behavioral theories and the neurophysiology of reward. Ann Rev Psychol 57: 87-115, 2006. Podcast http://www.in-cites.com/media/index.html

Blatter K & Schultz W. Rewarding properties of visual stimuli. Exp Brain Res 168: 541-546, 2006

Tobler PN, Fiorillo CD & Schultz W. Adaptive coding of reward value by dopamine neurons. Science 307: 1642-1645, 2005

Cromwell HC & Schultz W. Effects of expectations for different reward magnitudes on neuronal activity in the striatum. J Neurophysiol 89: 2823-2838, 2003

Fiorillo CD, Tobler PN & Schultz W. Discrete coding of reward probability and uncertainty by dopamine neurons. Science 299: 1898-1902, 2003

Waelti, P., Dickinson, A. and Schultz, W.: Dopamine responses comply with basic assumptions of formal learning theory. Nature 412: 43-48, 2001