Jeffrey Cockburn CV

Research Interests

Learning and decision making: How do we assign value and compare different options?
Cognitive control: How do we balance conflicting motivational drives? 
Computational Psychiatry: How do disruptions in these processes manifest as dimensions of mental health? 
 

Training Areas

Cognition
Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience
 

Research Group

Representative Publications

• Man, V., Cockburn, J., Flouty, O. et al. Temporally organized representations of reward and risk in the human brain. Nat Commun 15, 2162 (2024). (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-46094-1)
• Kate Nussenbaum, Rebecca E Martin, Sean Maulhardt, Yi (Jen) Yang, Greer Bizzell-Hatcher, Naiti S Bhatt, Maximilian Koenig, Gail M Rosenbaum, John P O'Doherty, Jeffrey Cockburn, Catherine A Hartley (2023) Novelty and uncertainty differentially drive exploration across development eLife 12:e84260 ( https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.84260)
• Aquino, T.G., Cockburn, J., Mamelak, A.N. et al. Neurons in human pre-supplementary motor area encode key computations for value-based choice. Nat Hum Behav 7, 970–985 (2023). (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01548-2)
• Cockburn, J., Man, V., Cunningham, W. A., & O’Doherty, J. P. (2022). Novelty and uncertainty regulate the balance between exploration and exploitation through distinct mechanisms in the human brain. Neuron, 110(16), 2691-2702. (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2022.05.025)
• Cross, L., Cockburn, J., Yue, Y., & O’Doherty, J. P. (2021). Using deep reinforcement learning to reveal how the brain encodes abstract state-space representations in high-dimensional environments. Neuron, 109(4), 724-738.(https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2020.11.021)
• Collins, A.G.E., Cockburn, J. Beyond dichotomies in reinforcement learning. Nat Rev Neurosci 21, 576–586 (2020). (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-020-0355-6)
• Cockburn, J., & Holroyd, C. B. (2018). Feedback information and the reward positivity. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 132, 243-251. (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2017.11.017)
• Cockburn, J., Collins, A. G., & Frank, M. J. (2014). A reinforcement learning mechanism responsible for the valuation of free choice. Neuron, 83(3), 551-557. (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2014.06.035).