OCT–DEC 2017 AusTRAlIAN QuARTeRlY 39Where in the world are you and
what are you doing?
I am in oxford, uK. Right now, I
am sitting in my bed with my laptop
propped on a pillow, as my room is
too small for a desk. I have Spotify
cranking and some hot rooibos beside
me. More generally though, I am in the
last few months of my PhD in Clinical
Neuroscience. I am trying to begin data
collection for my second experiment,
complete the analysis for my first, and
to write up my thesis.
I also work on It Gets Brighter, a
mental health charity to support young
people struggling with mental health
issues.
Can you sum up your research in a
sentence?
...No.
My research is in “cognitive and
computational neuroscience”. My
current lab is generally interested in
understanding how our brain performs
cognitive functions such as learning,
using and updating ‘models of the
world’. To explore the mechanisms for
this in the brain, we use functional
magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
to record brain activity while people
perform tasks. We then can model
their brain activity and behaviour, and
use general linear models or machine
learning approaches to look at what
their brain is representing at particular
times during the task.
The first project for my PhD explored
how we make decisions when we are
missing information, and how this
uncertainty influences our choices. In
particular, we were interested in howa tendency to experience high anxiety
is related to an altered response to
missing information in both neural
representations and behaviour.
For the second project of my PhD I
am exploring mechanisms underlying
attention. Specifically, how frontal
regions in our brain represent what
features of the environment we should
be paying attention to (strategy), based
on how reliably these features lead
to a goal. We are interested in what
happens when we switch strategies,
and the changes in representation of
the associated environmental features
in sensory regions of the brain.
has studying overseas given you
opportunities that you wouldn’t
have received in Australia?
Yeah. The biggest benefit, I think, is
actually not academic, but has been
being a part of the incredible and very
international community of graduate
students in oxford. The friendships,
conversations and ideas I have been
exposed to has pushed, challenged and
shaped my perspectives on life both
academically, and in a broader sense.
I think being somewhere like oxford
shapes what is ‘normal’. There is still
a ‘tall poppy syndrome’ in Australian
culture, which does not exist in oxford,
which is refreshing.
Academically, I certainly have been
privileged to be taught by some of the
leading experts in neuroscience. I can
regularly attend lectures or have a chat
at lunch with people who are the best
in the world at what they do. There are
many such incredibly accomplished
people in Australia too, but theyhOMETOWn:
Adelaide
CurrEnTLy LivinG:
oxford
rEsEArCh:
Cognitive and
Computational
NeuroscienceWITH EMMA LAWrAnCE
Student Edition
The first project
for my phD explored
how we make decisions
when we are missing
information, and how this
uncertainty influences
our choices.