Affective Brain Group

July 06, 2026

We are a cognitive neuroscience research laboratory dedicated to unraveling the mysteries of the human brain, mind and behavior. We are especially interested in understanding human decision making, information processing, belief formation and motivation.

We aim to bridge the gap between theory and real-world applications. Our research findings have a range of implications for improving mental health, reducing misinformation and improving the interactions between humans and technology.

Our research is interdisciplinary, sitting at the intersection of psychology, neuroscience and economics. We leverage a multidisciplinary approach, combining computational modeling, virtual reality tools, neuroimaging techniques, behavioral experiments, psychopharmacology, analysis of web browsing behavior and natural language processing, to gain a comprehensive understanding of the human mind, brain and behavior.

Our lab is part of the department of Experimental Psychology at UCL, The Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. We collaborate with psychiatrists, economists, policy makers, neuroscientists and psychologists world-wide.

Research Foci

Information Seeking and Mental Health
Belief Formation and Mental Health
Mechanisms related to Prediction and Anticipation
Neuroimaging and Pharmacology
Affective Disorders

Detailed information on these foci can be found at www.affectivebrain.com

Funding

The Affective Brain Group is funded by:

Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship

Recent Publications

Glickman, M., & Sharot, T. (2025). How human–AI feedback loops alter human perceptual, emotional and social judgements. Nature Human Behaviour, 9(2), 345–359. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-02077-2

Kelly, C. A., & Sharot, T. (2025). Web-browsing patterns reflect and shape mood and mental health. Nature Human Behaviour, 9(1), 133–146. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-02065-6

Molinaro, G., Cogliati Dezza, I., Bühler, S. K., Moutsiana, C., & Sharot, T. (2023). Multifaceted information-seeking motives in children. Nature Communications, 14(1), Article 5505. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40971-x

Blain, B., Pinhorn, I., & Sharot, T. (2023). Sensitivity to intrinsic rewards is domain general and related to mental health. Nature Mental Health, 1(9), 679–691. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44220-023-00116-x