Prof Wolfram Schultz FRS

Wellcome Principal Research Fellow and Professor of Neuroscience, Department of Physiology, Development & Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, UK

Fellow, Churchill College, University of Cambridge, UK

Visiting Associate in Neuroscience, Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA

Formely, Professor of Neurophysiology, University of Fribourg, Switzerland

ws42@pm.me, Wolfram.Schultz@protonmail.com

Neuroeconomics of reward and decision-making

Our group is interested in identifying brain signals for reward and economic decisions. As information processing systems work with explicit signals, we like to identify and characterise such signals before investigating detailed neuronal mechanisms. We use concepts from animal learning theory and economic decision theory and combine behavioural, neurophysiological and neuroimaging (fMRI) methods. We search for neuronal responses that implement fundamental theoretical constructs underlying reward-seeking, learning and decision-making, such as reward prediction error, utility, probability, risk, object-action-chosen value, and revealed preference. Studied brain structures include dopamine neurons, striatum, frontal cortex and amygdala. Please find more information in a short general article or update on dopamine reward prediction error coding, a brief overview or longer review on reward and economic decisions. Please find also my short CV, full CV, publication list and my 2022 autobiography written for the Society for Neuroscience (SfN).

Laboratory members

Aled H. David (Lab manager) (BSc Univ Derby)

Simone Ferrari Toniolo (PhD Univ Rome)

Daniel F. Hill (PhD Univ Arizona)

Previous lab members

Main collaborations

Ralph Adolphs and Charles R. Plott (Caltech)

Ueli Rütishauser (Cedars-Sinai Los Angeles)

Peter Bossaerts (Economy Univ Cambridge)

Fabian Grabenhorst (Univ Oxford)

Masamichi Sakagami (Tamagawa Univ)

Lecture videos

Neuroinformatics Krakow Univ 2022

AV Hill Lecture Cambridge Univ 2021

Virtual Dopamine (ViDA) Princeton 2020

Chen Lecture Caltech 2017

Einstein Center Berlin 2016

Puerto Rico Univ 2014

Current funding

Wellcome Trust

Main previous funding

European Research Council (ERC)

NIMH (Caltech Conte Center)

Human Frontiers

Cambridge University studentships

Swiss National Science Foundation