Social and Cognitive Neuroscience

This research pillar aims to understand the cognitive and neurobiological mechanisms that underpin social interactions.

We use a diverse range of methodological techniques, which span human neuroimaging, cognitive and computational modelling as well as “Big Data” approaches. We develop theoretical and computational models that have had impact in a wide domain of topics, such as human-robot interactions, social semantics, aesthetics and imitation. From a more applied standpoint, to understand the social consequences of brain injury, we actively collaborate with clinical psychologists to study loneliness in patient groups, such as stroke survivors. And all of the work in this research pillar is firmly underpinned by recent developments in methods and meta-science, which aim to improve the quality and reproducibility of research. For example, all confirmatory work is pre-registered, we run high-power studies and replicate novel effects, and all data, materials and analysis scripts are made publicly available via the open science framework and GitHub.

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