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

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).