BBSRC Future Leader Fellow
Contact information
Research groups
Nils Kolling
BA, MSc, DPhil
Research Fellow
The primary aim of my research is the understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying reward-guided decision making, learning and exploration. I focus particularly on the role of the frontal lobes of humans in generating choices based on rewards and other features of the environment.
My interest goes beyond uncovering the neural mechanisms underlying only one particular form of decision making. I am also investigating how forms of evaluation in the frontal lobes and the rest of the brain interact and compete, and how such network dynamics are responsible for allowing more dynamic and ecological behaviour. I am also pursuing how such a view might inform a better understanding of individual differences as well as disorders of reward, learning and choice.
I have recently shown how humans track an evolving context of risk, to inform their choices of whether to take contextually justified risks. Such context sensitive risk taking is not just ecologically very meaningful, but might also further our understanding of how evolving contextual constraints can dynamically change the way we make decisions as well as showing how the competition between different neural systems involved in choice changes.
Additionally, I have described the neural mechanisms underlying sequential decision making, prospection and insight. In particular, I have been able to relate prospective value with interactions between dorsal anterior cingulate and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.
During my current position at OHBA I am using non-invasive electrophysiological recording technique in humans (M/EEG) and electrode recordings in macaque to look at the moment-to-moment dynamics of reward tracking and decision making within and between changing reward environments.
Key publications
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Multiple neural mechanisms of decision making and their competition under changing risk pressure.
Journal article
Kolling N. et al, (2014), Neuron, 81, 1190 - 1202
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Neural mechanisms of foraging.
Journal article
Kolling N. et al, (2012), Science, 336, 95 - 98
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Prospection, Perseverance, and Insight in Sequential Behavior.
Journal article
Kolling N. et al, (2018), Neuron, 99, 1069 - 1082.e7
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State-change decisions and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex: the importance of time.
Journal article
Kolling N. and O'Reilly JX., (2018), Curr Opin Behav Sci, 22, 152 - 160
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The Good, the Bad, and the Irrelevant: Neural Mechanisms of Learning Real and Hypothetical Rewards and Effort.
Journal article
Scholl J. et al, (2015), J Neurosci, 35, 11233 - 11251
Recent publications
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Temporal Scaling of Human Scalp-Recorded Potentials During Interval Estimation
Journal article
Hassall CD. et al, (2020)
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Multiple systems in macaques for tracking prediction errors and other types of surprise.
Journal article
Grohn J. et al, (2020), PLoS Biol, 18
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Dopamine modulates dynamic decision-making during foraging
Journal article
Le Heron C. et al, (2020), The Journal of Neuroscience
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Dopamine and motivational state drive dynamics of human decision making
Journal article
Le Heron C. et al, (2019)
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The macaque anterior cingulate cortex translates counterfactual choice value into actual behavioral change.
Journal article
Fouragnan EF. et al, (2019), Nat Neurosci, 22, 797 - 808
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Prospection, Perseverance, and Insight in Sequential Behavior.
Journal article
Kolling N. et al, (2018), Neuron, 99, 1069 - 1082.e7
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State-change decisions and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex: the importance of time.
Journal article
Kolling N. and O'Reilly JX., (2018), Curr Opin Behav Sci, 22, 152 - 160
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The macaque anterior cingulate cortex translates counterfactual choice value into actual behavioral change
Journal article
Fouragnan E. et al, (2018)
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Simultaneous representation of a spectrum of dynamically changing value estimates during decision making.
Journal article
Meder D. et al, (2017), Nat Commun, 8
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(Reinforcement?) Learning to forage optimally.
Journal article
Kolling N. and Akam T., (2017), Curr Opin Neurobiol, 46, 162 - 169