Benedetto De Martino (Principal investigator)

I am a cognitive neuroscientist who works in the field of decision making and neuroeconomics. I did my PhD  at University College of London.  Here I began to study human decision making, integrating economics models with the tools of cognitive neuroscience with the aim of developing a more realistic account of economic behaviour. In 2008 I was awarded a Wellcome postdoctoral fellowship with Daniel Kahneman as mentor. I worked two years in the Department of Economics at Caltech with Colin Camerer. I am now a Sir Henry Dale Fellow (Royal Society & Wellcome Trust) at the University College London, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience where I am the Principal Investigator of the Decision Making Group. Contact me

@bendemartino

Giuseppe Castegnetti (Postdoc)

I studied physics at the University of Milano-Bicocca, where I obtained a MSc with a thesis on estimating the plasma density in thermonuclear fusion reactors. Then, as a PhD student with Dominik Bach at the University of Zurich, I applied computational methods to study the behavioural and neural bases of fear and anxiety. In Benedetto De Martino’s lab, I am investigating how uncertainty drives learning and concept generalisation, and whether this knowledge could help building more flexible machines. Contact me

Mariana Zurita (PhD student)

I am a Biotech Engineer from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, where I also got my MSc in Engineering. My masters thesis focused on developing machine learning classifiers based on Brain MRI to better understand Multiple Sclerosis. I then joined the Decision Making group in London as a Research Assistant. Here, I researched the difference between perceptual and value-based decisions. I started my PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience in the lab in 2019. I'm interested on how memory influences our decision-making process. Particularly, how this is affected by mental health disorders. Contact me

 Pradyumna Sepúlveda (PhD student)

I am a Biotech Engineer and MSc from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. My thesis involved the exploration of the underlying factors in neurofeedback control using fMRI and EEG. I moved to UK to do an MSc in Neuroscience at King’s College London where I studied the effect of action in the generation of confidence in shifting environments. During my PhD I'm researching the role that context, attention and memory have in the construction of the values we use to make decisions. Contact me

Michael Taylor (MSc student)

Originally studying Chemistry at Oxford University, where I built computational models of deuterated water clusters for my part II, I eventually succumbed to the siren song of paid employment.  A long stint delivering technology for banks in Accenture and Deloitte (where I still work part-time) was enough to snap me out of my capitalist stupor and lure me back to academic life; a recently completed masters in Data Science from City University announcing my return. Coming to the inevitable conclusion that the best bits of AI are Bayesian networks, neural networks and reinforcement learning the Cognitive and Decision Science programme at UCL is where I now call home. My particular interest is in how the cognitive biases and processes that we possess can be represented in artificial agents. Contact me

Alumni

• Annika Boldt

• Nora Heinzelmann

• tomas Folke

• Paula Kaanders

• Fabrice Luyckx

• Ernest Mihelj

• Mihaela nemes

• amy benson

• Leonhardt unruh

• luna kamps

• Haonan zhang

• Edward davies

• YUMEYA YAMAMORI