We are a neural data lab

THE HUMPHRIES LAB

We interrogate how the joint activity of many neurons encodes the past, present, and future in order to guide behaviour.  We develop neural data analysis techniques, and use them to understand what joint activity is encoding in recordings of hundreds or thousands of neurons, from across different tasks, brain circuits, species, and phyla. And we develop theoretical and computational models for how this joint activity arises from neural circuits.

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Supported by the Medical Research Council

New paper on population plasticity in the prefrontal cortex

May 2019

Our new paper "Medial Prefrontal Cortex Population Activity Is Plastic Irrespective of Learning" by Singh, Peyrache & Humphries is out in the Journal of Neuroscience. 

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Here we show, in a trial-and-error task, that population activity in PFC is persistently changing, regardless of learning. Only during episodes of clear learning of relevant actions are the accompanying changes to population activity carried forward into sleep, suggesting a long-lasting form of neural plasticity.

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Read the write-up of our research in PNAS Front Matter

UK Neural Computation 2019 meeting

July 2019

We're organising a national meeting for the UK's computational neuroscience community. Main meeting will be July 2nd-3rd, and early career workshops on July 1st. All in Nottingham University's beautiful parkland campus.

Abstract submission closes May 10th

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Visit the website for full detail!

New paper: learning to remember in prefrontal cortex

June 7, 2018

Our new paper in Nature Communications, "An ensemble code in medial prefrontal cortex links prior events to outcomes during learning" reveals how the PfC's roles in learning and short-term memory intersect. Led by Silvia Maggi, and in collaboration with Adrien Peyrache.

New review of  modelling Parkinson's disease

April 18, 2018

In our new paper, we review what computational models have taught us about Parkinson's disease. With Jose Obeso and Jakob Dreyer, for the BMJ's Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.

New paper in PLoS Computational Biology

April 10, 2018

Our paper "A probabilistic, distributed, recursive mechanism for decision-making in the brain" led by Javier Caballero is out! Find out how the brain makes decisions between more than two alternatives.

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Code available here

We've moved!

April 3, 2018

The Humphries lab has landed at the University of Nottingham. Au revoir to our friends at the University of Manchester.

A manifesto for neural data science

March 26, 2018

The neural data scientist uses data from systems neuroscience experiments to ask: how do all these neurons work together to do their thing? This latest post on The Spike is a guide for how to answer this question.

OHBM interview Mark

February 19, 2018

An interview with Mark by the Organisation of Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) blog.

The Spike

Always

Our #scicomm publication at Medium. We essay the latest advances in understanding of neurons work together. And take a deep dive into the philosophy of systems neuroscience — of how best to understand the brain, and of the limits to our understanding.