Mark Walton

I am Professor of Behavioural Neuroscience at the Department of Experimental Psychology and also serve as the current British Neuroscience Association Trustee for Preclinical Neuroscience.  My laboratory, established in 2010, investigates the neural mechanisms underpinning motivation and adaptive decision making, with a particular focus on how neurochemicals such as dopamine regulate these processes on a moment-by-moment timescale in rodents. 

My lab employs a multidisciplinary approach with a strong emphasis on behaviour, drawing inspiration from behavioural ecology, animal learning theory, neuroeconomics, and psychology, to unravel complex brain-behaviour relationships.  We are known for pioneering the use of cutting-edge methods for recording and manipulating dopamine release in rodents during novel decision making paradigms.  This work is helping to show how dopamine, in tandem with wider cortical-basal ganglia circuits, regulates when to act, when to persist, and when to switch to something new.