Joseph Balfe
Joseph Balfe
BMus, BSc, MSc (Distinction)
DPhil (PhD) Student
- Clarendon Scholar 2025
- Rachel Conrad Doctoral Scholar 2025
Toward understanding depressive cognition using non-invasive brain stimulation, neuroimaging, neuropsychological testing, and computational modelling
Research
The brain cleverly optimises perception and action to maximise rewards (and minimise punishments) within continuously changing environments. Given the fundamental nature of such processes, it is important to understand them from a neurobiological and computational perspective as they may reveal novel insights for the development of psychiatric conditions such as depression. Within this framework, I ask a few important questions:
- Can we measure and quantify distinct components of reward learning using neuropsychological paradigms and computational modelling?
- Based on such measures, can non-invasive brain stimulation methods be used to normalise reward learning processes depression?
- How might the improvement of reward learning processes translate to the improvement of depressive symptoms?
My research aims to answer these questions through neuropsychological testing, neuroimaging, non-invasive brain stimulation, and computational modelling.