Oxford Centre for Computational Neuroscience Research by Professor Edmund T. Rolls
Aims of Research	The aims of the research are to provide information fundamental to understanding how the brain works, and thus to understanding brain dysfunction. The research focuses on the brain mechanisms of perception, memory, emotion and feeding, and thus of perceptual, memory, emotional and eating disorders. The research builds on the following complementary approaches in order to investigate how the brain actually works: biologically realistic computational neuronal network models that build on knowledge of neuronal activity in different brain areas, to show what is represented, and how it is represented neuroimaging and neuropsychological studies in humans
Research Topics	The topics investigated include: 1) The processing of taste and olfactory information by the brain. 2) The processing of visual information about objects by the brain. 3) A theory and model of how the visual system performs invariant visual object recognition. 4) A theory of emotion, and analysis of the operation of the brain systems including the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex, which are involved in emotion. 5) The application of understanding brain mechanisms of emotion and emotion-related learning to the understanding and rehabilitation of patients with damage to the inferior parts of the frontal lobes. 6) The operation of the brain systems, including the hypothalamus, orbitofrontal cortex, and amygdala, involved in the control of food and water intake. 7) Where and how sensory signals are decoded into reward signals in the brain, and the neural mechanisms that underlie reward. 8) The neural mechanisms which underlie memory in the brain. The operation of key structures in the brain in memory, including the hippocampus, orbitofrontal cortex, and amygdala. 9) A full theoretical treatment of how the hippocampus could store episodic memories, and how they could be recalled to the neocortex to thus contribute to the formation of long-term memories. 10) The information which reaches the striatum from the neocortex, and the implications of this for understanding the operation of the basal ganglia. 11) How information is encoded by the firing of neurons in many different brain systems. 12) The ways in which many parts of the brain may actually work, by combining neurophysiological, neuroanatomical, and biologically plausible neuronal network approaches. 13) The brain mechanisms of attention and decision-making. Many of these advances are summarized in four books: Neural Networks and Brain Function by E.T.Rolls and A.Treves, 1998, Oxford University Press; Computational Neuroscience of Vision by E.T.Rolls and G.Deco, 2002, Oxford University Press; Emotion Explained by E.T.Rolls, 2005, Oxford University Press; Memory, Attention, and Decision-Making by E.T.Rolls, 2008, Oxford University Press; and are described in the papers shown in the List of Publications.