Show one group of volunteers a short frightening video and another group an ordinary one, then time how quickly everyone responds on a simple task. If the anxious group is slower, what has fear done to working memory or processing speed? Questions like this sit at the center of Oxford psychologist Robin A. Murphy's course in CRI's 2026 Seoul Research Program. Students plan an experiment, collect the data, run the statistics and write up what they found.
An Oxford researcher of learning and emotion
Robin A. Murphy is a professor in the University of Oxford's Department of Experimental Psychology. He studies how the brain learns, approaching the question through associative learning theory and neurophysiology. Since joining Oxford in 2009 he has focused on associative learning and computational psychopathology, and he has published more than 80 papers.
His lab examines learning, memory and emotional behavior in both human and animal models. A central thread is the link between brain function and mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety disorders and schizophrenia. That work is helping researchers understand how the brain functions and informing the development of treatments.
Psychology, neuroscience and AI in one course
The course, Behavioural and Cognitive Neuroscience for Human Psychopathology, is an advanced program that brings together experimental psychology, neurobiology and AI modeling. Students use AI techniques such as neural network models and reinforcement learning to analyze the brain mechanisms behind human learning, decision-making and emotional disorders.
It starts with the foundations: associative learning, how the brain computes prediction errors, and the neural mechanisms of decision-making. Students then carry those theories into clinical territory, using computer models to explore depression, anxiety disorders and schizophrenia. Brain imaging (fMRI) and behavioral data help characterize the neural networks involved in cognitive and emotional disorders, so theoretical modeling and clinical application are studied side by side.
