Specific neural circuits and neuromodulation underlying real-time cost-benefit decision making

Grantholders

  • Dr Ritwik Niyogi

    University of Oxford

Project summary

Ritwik will investigate the neural circuits and neurochemicals underlying decisions about when and how fast to take actions. Such decisions occur in real time and incur time-sensitive costs and benefits. Ritwik will seek to understand the precise cost-benefit computations the neuromodulators dopamine and serotonin perform, and how these control behaviour. He will use a novel approach, employing a powerful combination of temporally precise and spatially specific experimental techniques – electrophysiology, optogenetics (with Dr Jeremiah Cohen, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine) and fast-scan cyclic voltammetry (with Dr Mark Walton, University of Oxford) – guided by sophisticated real-time theoretical modelling (with Professor Nathaniel Daw, New York University).