The primary aim of my research is the understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying reward-guided decision making, learning and exploration. I focus particularly on the role of the frontal lobes of humans in generating choices based on rewards and other features of the environment.
My interest goes beyond uncovering the neural mechanisms underlying only one particular form of decision making. I am also investigating how forms of evaluation in the frontal lobes and the rest of the brain interact and compete, and how such network dynamics are responsible for allowing more dynamic and ecological behaviour. I am also pursuing how such a view might inform a better understanding of individual differences as well as disorders of reward, learning and choice.
I have recently shown how humans track an evolving context of risk, to inform their choices of whether to take contextually justified risks. Such context sensitive risk taking is not just ecologically very meaningful, but might also further our understanding of how evolving contextual constraints can dynamically change the way we make decisions as well as showing how the competition between different neural systems involved in choice changes.
Additionally, I have described the neural mechanisms underlying sequential decision making, planning and insight. In particular, I have been able to relate prospective value with interactions between dorsal anterior cingulate and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.
My approach to cognitive computational neuroscience is highly multi-disciplinary and includes many methods and techniques. I worked across-species and across-methods, with macaques and humans using fMRI, MEG, EEG, MRS, neurostimulation, computational modelling, large online data collection, pharmacological manipulations and patients.
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Reference | Title | Authors | Journal | PUB MED | ||
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2022 | 20(3):e3001566 | The effect of apathy and compulsivity on planning and stopping in sequential decision-making | Jacqueline Scholl, Hailey A Trier, Matthew F S Rushworth, Nils Kolling | PLoS Biol | - | ||
2021 | 41(46):9571-9580 | Constructing Others' Beliefs from One's Own Using Medial Frontal Cortex | Nils Kolling, Marius Braunsdorf, Suhas Vijayakumar, Harold Bekkering, Ivan Toni, Rogier B Mars | J Neurosci | - | ||
2021 | 24(8):1051-1064 | Formalizing planning and information search in naturalistic decision-making | L T Hunt, N D Daw, P Kaanders, M A MacIver, U Mugan, E Procyk, A D Redish, E Russo, J Scholl, K Stachenfeld, C R E Wilson, N Kolling | Nat Neurosci | - | ||
2020 | 18(10):e3000899 | Multiple systems in macaques for tracking prediction errors and other types of surprise | Jan Grohn, Urs Schüffelgen, Franz-Xaver Neubert, Alessandro Bongioanni, Lennart Verhagen, Jerome Sallet, Nils Kolling, Matthew F S Rushworth | PLoS Biol | - | ||
2018 | 22:152-160 | State-change decisions and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex: the importance of time | Nils Kolling, Jill X O'Reilly | Curr Opin Behav Sci | - | ||
2018 | 99(5):1069-1082.e7 | Prospection, Perseverance, and Insight in Sequential Behavior | Nils Kolling, Jacqueline Scholl, Adam Chekroud, Hailey A Trier, Matthew F S Rushworth | Neuron | - | ||
2017 | 46:162-169 | (Reinforcement?) Learning to forage optimally | Nils Kolling, Thomas Akam | Curr Opin Neurobiol | - | ||
2017 | 15(2):e2000756 | Beyond negative valence: 2-week administration of a serotonergic antidepressant enhances both reward and effort learning signals | Jacqueline Scholl, Nils Kolling, Natalie Nelissen, Michael Browning, Matthew F S Rushworth, Catherine J Harmer | PLoS Biol | - | ||
2017 | 6:e20365 | Excitation and inhibition in anterior cingulate predict use of past experiences | Jacqueline Scholl, Nils Kolling, Natalie Nelissen, Charlotte J Stagg, Catherine J Harmer, Matthew Fs Rushworth | Elife | - | ||
2016 | 36(4):1096-112 | Neural Mechanisms of Credit Assignment in a Multicue Environment | Rei Akaishi, Nils Kolling, Joshua W Brown, Matthew Rushworth | J Neurosci | - | ||