A biological framework for understanding and modulating apathy in healthy people
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Oxford
Department Name: Experimental Psychology
Abstract
As we get older our ability to do mentally and physically demanding tasks declines. However, research shows that we also lose motivation to complete mentally and physically demanding tasks through the effects of aging. Apathy - a reduction in the willingness to engage and perform mentally and physically demanding tasks - is widespread in mild forms in young adults, but crucially, it significantly increases as we age, hampering the daily lives of the elderly. Apathy in young adults may also have considerable long-term effects with significant costs, affecting education, employment and civic engagement.
Despite the importance of keeping motivated for healthy aging, very little is known about the biological processes that lead to apathy in the young or the elderly. In this research I aim to establish a biological model of apathy. I will test specific ideas developed from animal models of the processes in the brain that lead to reduced motivation. Using this models as a basis, I will test whether key pathways in the brain that lead animals to stop doing mentally and physically demanding tasks are also responsible for causing individual differences in how motivated people are . Using new mathematical approaches in conjunction with brain imaging techniques in healthy young adults I will build a biologically based model of apathy in the young and the elderly. Using modern non-invasive brain stimulation techniques I will then explore whether motivation can be increased by stimulating parts of the brain we predict are involved in motivation based on our animal model.
There are three key questions this research will address:
(1) To what extent is motivation reduced in the elderly?
Most research that has looked at motivation in aging, has used questionnaires, asking people about how motivated they feel. Unfortunately, these do not provide us with a model that can explain the biology behind apathy. Using two new tasks, the designs of which are based on tasks used to explore animal decision-making, I will examine how motivated the elderly are compared to young adults to do mentally and physically demanding tasks and how motivated they are to overcome fatigue.
(2) What is the biology of apathy
Research into the processes that underpin motivation in rats, birds and monkeys has provided us with a models of the pathwys in the brain that are crucial for keeping animals motivated. However, it is unknown what the links are between how these 'motivational circuits' work, apathy in humans, and changes in motivation through aging. Using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (which can tell us about whether an area is 'activated' by doing a task) and Diffusion Tensor Imaging (which can tell us about how strongly connected to each other brain areas are) I will test whether the same pathways in the brain that are responsible for motivating animals are also responsible for motivating humans. I will then test whether changes in these pathways in older people leads to them being less motivated.
(3) Can we increase motivation in the elderly and the apathetic young by stimulating the brain?
Once my proposed model of apathy has been tested, I will have identified I will have identified regions that can targeted by brain stimulation techniques. By stimulating these areas in a particular way, I predict that we can increase people's willingness to overcome cognitive and physical demands, and make people less influenced by fatigue. That is, I aim to try and increase how motivated people are, in order to develop potential techniques for ameliorating apathy.
This work will provide the first biological model of apathy and how changes in the brain can lead to greater levels of apathy in the elderly. This model will provide researchers, clinicians and industry with a framework on which to base therapeutic techniques and technologies aimed at increasing motivation.
Despite the importance of keeping motivated for healthy aging, very little is known about the biological processes that lead to apathy in the young or the elderly. In this research I aim to establish a biological model of apathy. I will test specific ideas developed from animal models of the processes in the brain that lead to reduced motivation. Using this models as a basis, I will test whether key pathways in the brain that lead animals to stop doing mentally and physically demanding tasks are also responsible for causing individual differences in how motivated people are . Using new mathematical approaches in conjunction with brain imaging techniques in healthy young adults I will build a biologically based model of apathy in the young and the elderly. Using modern non-invasive brain stimulation techniques I will then explore whether motivation can be increased by stimulating parts of the brain we predict are involved in motivation based on our animal model.
There are three key questions this research will address:
(1) To what extent is motivation reduced in the elderly?
Most research that has looked at motivation in aging, has used questionnaires, asking people about how motivated they feel. Unfortunately, these do not provide us with a model that can explain the biology behind apathy. Using two new tasks, the designs of which are based on tasks used to explore animal decision-making, I will examine how motivated the elderly are compared to young adults to do mentally and physically demanding tasks and how motivated they are to overcome fatigue.
(2) What is the biology of apathy
Research into the processes that underpin motivation in rats, birds and monkeys has provided us with a models of the pathwys in the brain that are crucial for keeping animals motivated. However, it is unknown what the links are between how these 'motivational circuits' work, apathy in humans, and changes in motivation through aging. Using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (which can tell us about whether an area is 'activated' by doing a task) and Diffusion Tensor Imaging (which can tell us about how strongly connected to each other brain areas are) I will test whether the same pathways in the brain that are responsible for motivating animals are also responsible for motivating humans. I will then test whether changes in these pathways in older people leads to them being less motivated.
(3) Can we increase motivation in the elderly and the apathetic young by stimulating the brain?
Once my proposed model of apathy has been tested, I will have identified I will have identified regions that can targeted by brain stimulation techniques. By stimulating these areas in a particular way, I predict that we can increase people's willingness to overcome cognitive and physical demands, and make people less influenced by fatigue. That is, I aim to try and increase how motivated people are, in order to develop potential techniques for ameliorating apathy.
This work will provide the first biological model of apathy and how changes in the brain can lead to greater levels of apathy in the elderly. This model will provide researchers, clinicians and industry with a framework on which to base therapeutic techniques and technologies aimed at increasing motivation.
Technical Summary
Apathy - reduced motivation to initiate goal-directed behaviours - is present in a number of psychiatric and neurological disorders. In addition, apathy is widespread in a milder form in the healthy population and increases with ageing, causing significant disruptions to well being. However, there is currently no biological, mechanistic account of apathy. The aim of the proposed fellowship is to develop the first model of apathy in the young and the elderly.
Basic neuroscience research in animals is increasingly elucidating computational and neural models of motivation. In these models, motivation is cast as a decision-making problem. Behaviours are initiated following cost-benefit analyses, where beneficial outcomes (rewards) are discounted (devalued) by the costs (effort) of acting. Here, this framework will be used as a model of apathy, to inform the design of tasks and to derive hypotheses.
Two tasks will be used to test the relationship between apathy in young and the elderly, and cost-benefit decision-making. The first measures the sensitivity of subjects to cognitive or physical effort. The second measures the influence that fatigue has on cost-benefit decision-making. Using computational modeling approaches I can characterize individual differences in the sensitivity to cognitive and physical effort, and fatigue, in the young and the elderly. This approach can then be used to the test the notion that cost-benefit decision-making can be used as a model of apathy in humans.
To test cost-benefit decision-making as a biological model of apathy I will use functional magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion tensor imaging to test specific hypotheses about the neuroanatomical correlates of apathy, physical and cognitive effort, and fatigue sensitivity. Using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation I will test the causality of activity in the hypothesised cortical regions, with the aim of increasing motivation in the apathetic.
Basic neuroscience research in animals is increasingly elucidating computational and neural models of motivation. In these models, motivation is cast as a decision-making problem. Behaviours are initiated following cost-benefit analyses, where beneficial outcomes (rewards) are discounted (devalued) by the costs (effort) of acting. Here, this framework will be used as a model of apathy, to inform the design of tasks and to derive hypotheses.
Two tasks will be used to test the relationship between apathy in young and the elderly, and cost-benefit decision-making. The first measures the sensitivity of subjects to cognitive or physical effort. The second measures the influence that fatigue has on cost-benefit decision-making. Using computational modeling approaches I can characterize individual differences in the sensitivity to cognitive and physical effort, and fatigue, in the young and the elderly. This approach can then be used to the test the notion that cost-benefit decision-making can be used as a model of apathy in humans.
To test cost-benefit decision-making as a biological model of apathy I will use functional magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion tensor imaging to test specific hypotheses about the neuroanatomical correlates of apathy, physical and cognitive effort, and fatigue sensitivity. Using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation I will test the causality of activity in the hypothesised cortical regions, with the aim of increasing motivation in the apathetic.
Planned Impact
Impact Summary
Who will benefit from the research?
Academic: This research has the potential to benefit academics across a broad range of disciplines, including ecology, neuroscience, sports psychology, aging psychology and neuroscience. It will also have considerable interest to those interested in health and well-being including clinical psychologists, neurologists and charitable organizations promoting healthy aging such as Age UK (Age Uk have been contacted regarding endorsement for this research fellowship). In addition, members of the public in whom apathy is highly prevelant (Levy, 2006) include:
- Alzheimer's disease (~60%)
- Parkinson's disease (~51%)
- Depression (~40%)
- Traumatic Brain Injury (~46%)
- As well as evidence in the long-term unemployed (Rodiguez, 1997)
In addition, motivation is crucial within the sporting industry for athletes to achieve high levels of performance.
How will they benefit?
Societal Impact: In 2011-2012 the UK spent £4bn on unemployment benefit. Whilst many of these individuals are motivated for searching for work, apathy is highly prevalent in the long-term unemployed. This can have considerable short-term and long-term consequences for well-being and mental health. Minimising the effects of apathy will therefore decrease the cost to society. By increasing awareness of the issues surrounding apathy I hope, in the long-term, to reduce the burden placed on society by apathetic individuals.
Clinical Impact (patients and practitioners): The absence of a mechanistic account of apathy has held back the development of therapeutic advances. I will develop a model that delineates components of apathy and identify potential avenues for patient-tailored care to be developed. Thus, clinical researchers will benefit from this research by having a framework which will inform therapeutic techniques. To increase engagement with clinical researchers and practitioners I will hold a round table meeting with the principal investigators at the head of the Oxford Dementia and Aging Research (OXDARE) network hold a motivational workshop and host website for raising awareness of the role of motivation for healthy aging. In addition, if this research highlights the efficacy of TMS as a treatment, follow-on funding would be applied for to develop an rTMS protocol to ameliorate the negative effects of apathy on longer time-scales.
Industry Impact: In this project I am hoping to use TMS to increase motivation. Whilst TMS has been used as a treatment technique, alternative techniques such as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) are cheaper and preferable to TMS. However, currently tDCS is unlikely to be able to target the desired cortical zones we are highlighting as crucial for motivation (the supplementary motor area). Thus, if I were able to demonstrate efficacy for increasing motivation I would aim to contact industry leaders in brain stimulation techniques (e.g. Magstim) in order to apply for an industrial partnership award to develop more efficient methods of tDCS that could be used for the aim of stimulating SMA and increasing motivation. This would allow for more portable flexible techniques to be developed that would allow for use safe and prescribed use and potentially as a potential enhancement of sporting performance. Such processes will be in the long-term and these proposals are made with the awareness that considerable ethical and practical challenges will need to be solved before this is a possibility.
Who will benefit from the research?
Academic: This research has the potential to benefit academics across a broad range of disciplines, including ecology, neuroscience, sports psychology, aging psychology and neuroscience. It will also have considerable interest to those interested in health and well-being including clinical psychologists, neurologists and charitable organizations promoting healthy aging such as Age UK (Age Uk have been contacted regarding endorsement for this research fellowship). In addition, members of the public in whom apathy is highly prevelant (Levy, 2006) include:
- Alzheimer's disease (~60%)
- Parkinson's disease (~51%)
- Depression (~40%)
- Traumatic Brain Injury (~46%)
- As well as evidence in the long-term unemployed (Rodiguez, 1997)
In addition, motivation is crucial within the sporting industry for athletes to achieve high levels of performance.
How will they benefit?
Societal Impact: In 2011-2012 the UK spent £4bn on unemployment benefit. Whilst many of these individuals are motivated for searching for work, apathy is highly prevalent in the long-term unemployed. This can have considerable short-term and long-term consequences for well-being and mental health. Minimising the effects of apathy will therefore decrease the cost to society. By increasing awareness of the issues surrounding apathy I hope, in the long-term, to reduce the burden placed on society by apathetic individuals.
Clinical Impact (patients and practitioners): The absence of a mechanistic account of apathy has held back the development of therapeutic advances. I will develop a model that delineates components of apathy and identify potential avenues for patient-tailored care to be developed. Thus, clinical researchers will benefit from this research by having a framework which will inform therapeutic techniques. To increase engagement with clinical researchers and practitioners I will hold a round table meeting with the principal investigators at the head of the Oxford Dementia and Aging Research (OXDARE) network hold a motivational workshop and host website for raising awareness of the role of motivation for healthy aging. In addition, if this research highlights the efficacy of TMS as a treatment, follow-on funding would be applied for to develop an rTMS protocol to ameliorate the negative effects of apathy on longer time-scales.
Industry Impact: In this project I am hoping to use TMS to increase motivation. Whilst TMS has been used as a treatment technique, alternative techniques such as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) are cheaper and preferable to TMS. However, currently tDCS is unlikely to be able to target the desired cortical zones we are highlighting as crucial for motivation (the supplementary motor area). Thus, if I were able to demonstrate efficacy for increasing motivation I would aim to contact industry leaders in brain stimulation techniques (e.g. Magstim) in order to apply for an industrial partnership award to develop more efficient methods of tDCS that could be used for the aim of stimulating SMA and increasing motivation. This would allow for more portable flexible techniques to be developed that would allow for use safe and prescribed use and potentially as a potential enhancement of sporting performance. Such processes will be in the long-term and these proposals are made with the awareness that considerable ethical and practical challenges will need to be solved before this is a possibility.
Organisations
- University of Oxford (Lead Research Organisation)
- UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD (Collaboration)
- University College London (Collaboration)
- ETH Zurich (Collaboration)
- Royal Holloway, University of London (Collaboration)
- Yale University (Collaboration)
- Radboud University Nijmegen (Collaboration)
- IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON (Collaboration)
- University of Birmingham (Fellow)
People |
ORCID iD |
Matthew Apps (Principal Investigator / Fellow) |
Publications
Draper A
(2018)
Effort but not Reward Sensitivity is Altered by Acute Sickness Induced by Experimental Endotoxemia in Humans.
in Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology
Chong TT
(2018)
Computational modelling reveals distinct patterns of cognitive and physical motivation in elite athletes.
in Scientific reports
Chong TT
(2017)
Neurocomputational mechanisms underlying subjective valuation of effort costs.
in PLoS biology
Balsters, Joshua H.
(2017)
Disrupted prediction errors index social deficits in autism spectrum disorder
Balsters JH
(2016)
Connectivity-based parcellation increases network detection sensitivity in resting state fMRI: An investigation into the cingulate cortex in autism.
in NeuroImage. Clinical
Balsters J
(2016)
Disrupted prediction errors index social deficits in autism spectrum disorder
in Brain
Apps MAJ
(2018)
Not on my team: Medial prefrontal cortex responses to ingroup fusion and unfair monetary divisions.
in Brain and behavior
Apps MAJ
(2017)
Social Learning in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex.
in Trends in cognitive sciences
Apps MAJ
(2017)
Contributions of the Medial Prefrontal Cortex to Social Influence in Economic Decision-Making.
in Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)
Apps MA
(2015)
Vicarious reinforcement learning signals when instructing others.
in The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience
Description | This grant used a combination of computational, psychological and neuroscientific techniques to show how context specific motivation is. It showed some of the mechanisms in the brain that underlie how we evaluate how effortful a task is going to be, how this "devalues" how rewarding we find actions and as a result why people differ in their levels of motivation. |
Exploitation Route | This work formed the basis of the ideas and paradigms that are subsequently being investigated by multiple labs across the UK and Europe, in both healthy people and in disorders in which motivation problems are common. It also formed the basis of a subsequent BBSRC Fellowship grant. |
Sectors | Healthcare,Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology |
Description | DAAD Studentship for PhD student Tanja Mueller |
Amount | £20,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United States |
Start | 01/2017 |
End | 01/2018 |
Description | David Phillips |
Amount | £1,250,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 06/2018 |
End | 06/2023 |
Description | Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund |
Amount | £26,322 (GBP) |
Organisation | Wellcome Trust |
Department | Wellcome Trust Strategic Award |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 06/2017 |
End | 06/2018 |
Title | Apathy Motivation Index |
Description | The Self-report AMI is the first measure of the different dimensions of apathy in healthy people. |
Type Of Material | Model of mechanisms or symptoms - human |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Multiple labs are now using it as their assessment of apathy in their research. |
URL | http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0169938 |
Title | Task and computational models probe effort sensitivity |
Description | We developed a new task that measures effort sensitivity for self and in social contexts, |
Type Of Material | Model of mechanisms or symptoms - human |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | At least 6 labs across Europe are using this task to probe motivation in different populations and conditions. |
URL | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-017-0131 |
Title | Data and results of PLoS Biology paper on the neurocomputational mechanisms underlying the subjective valuation of effort costs |
Description | All fMRI and behavioural data from manuscript in PLoS Biology |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Data is open to all other scientists and the public via Neurovault and Figshare: https://figshare.com/s/39c27f6fd07de9a66fc2 https://neurovault.org/collections/PDMXBECO/ |
URL | https://neurovault.org/collections/PDMXBECO/ |
Description | Collaboration for BBSRC fellowship and review article |
Organisation | University of Oxford |
Department | Department of Experimental Psychology |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Collaboration on a research paper under review Collaboration on the design of future research projects |
Collaborator Contribution | Guidance on the design of experiments and assistance with manuscript preparation |
Impact | Outputs forthcoming |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | Collaboration with Dr. Josh Balsters |
Organisation | Royal Holloway, University of London |
Department | Department of Psychology |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Provided support for a grant application, providing data collection and analysis materials and code. |
Collaborator Contribution | Dr. Balsters applied for a grant to purchase equipment and collect the data using a paradigm designed by my group. |
Impact | N/A |
Start Year | 2018 |
Description | Collaboration with Dr.Steve Chang |
Organisation | Yale University |
Department | School of Engineering and Applied Science |
Country | United States |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Preparation of manuscript for publication |
Collaborator Contribution | Contribution to manuscript preparation |
Impact | Publication in Neuron. |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | Collaboration with Imperial College London researchers |
Organisation | Imperial College London |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | My team is providing the paradigm, data collection and analysis programs to collect data on motivated behaviour and apathy in Patients with traumatic brain injury |
Collaborator Contribution | Prof. Sharp's team is collecting, analysing and leading the publication of the data collected using our paradigms. |
Impact | N/A |
Start Year | 2018 |
Description | Collaboration with UCL researchers |
Organisation | University College London |
Department | Division of Psychology & Language Sciences |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Prof. Essi Viding is using our paradigm to examine motivated behaviour/apathy in children with conduct problems. We provide access to the data collection and analysis programs. |
Collaborator Contribution | Prof. Viding's team will collect the data and publish the results. |
Impact | N.A |
Start Year | 2018 |
Description | Collaboration with researchers at Oxford |
Organisation | University of Oxford |
Department | Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | My team is providing the paradigm, data collection and analysis programs to collect data on motivated behaviour and apathy in patients with dementia. |
Collaborator Contribution | Prof. Butler's team will collect data from the patients. |
Impact | N/A |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | Collaboraton Prof. Jon Roiser and Prof. Essi Viding (UCL) |
Organisation | University College London |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | I collaborated in designing, analysing and publishing projects examining the processing of motivation and value during social interactions. |
Collaborator Contribution | Their teams collected and analysed data and supervised the project locally at UCL. |
Impact | Lockwood, P.L., Apps, M.A.J., Valton, V., Viding, E., & Roiser, J.P (2016). Neurocomputational mechanisms of prosocial learning and links to empathy. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Lockwood, P.L., Apps M.A.J., Roiser, J.P & Viding, E. (2015). Encoding of Vicarious Reward Prediction in Anterior Cingulate Cortex and Relationship with Trait Empathy. Journal of Neuroscience |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | Collaboraton with Prof. Nici Wenderoth and Dr. Josh Balsters (ETH Zurich) |
Organisation | ETH Zurich |
Country | Switzerland |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Designing/analysing/interpreting and producing publication on data collected in Zurich |
Collaborator Contribution | Designing/analysing/interpreting and producing publication on data collected in Zurich |
Impact | Balsters, J.H., Mantini, D., Apps, M.A., Eickhoff, S., Wenderoth, N. (2016). Connectivity-based parcellation increases network detection sensitivity in resting state fMRI: An investigation into the cingulate cortex in autism. Neuroimage: Clinical Balsters, J.H., Apps, M.A.J., Bolis, D., Lehner, R., Gallagher, l., & Wenderoth, N. (2017). Disrupted prediction errors index social deficits in autism spectrum disorder. Brain |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | Hosting visting researcher |
Organisation | Radboud University Nijmegen |
Department | Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour |
Country | Netherlands |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Hosting of a Marie-Curie Fellow from Randbound Institute |
Collaborator Contribution | Design of a new study in collaboration, data collection and publication to come under my supervision |
Impact | N/A |
Start Year | 2018 |
Description | International collaboration with Dr. Molly Crockett |
Organisation | Yale University |
Country | United States |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Formed a collaboration and co-supervising a PhD student |
Collaborator Contribution | Formed a collaboration and co-supervising a PhD student |
Impact | N/A |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | ATOM Festival of Science |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | My group had a stall at the science festival promoting research investigating fatigue and motivation in healthy people, across the lifespan and in patients groups. Members of the public were informed about our research, and members of the public signed up to be participants in our research. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | BBC Oxford Radio Interview on Apathy |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | The first author on a project funded by my BBSRC fellowship performed an 10 minute interview on social apathy on the 5pm Drive-time show for the BBSC Oxfordshire (the radio show with the largest audience). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p056jgdj |
Description | CNC open day |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Patients, carers and the general public are invited to come and see the workings of the lab and the department. This sparked questions and discussion with patients and an increase in participation in research in the future. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014,2015,2018 |
Description | Guardian research of the week |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | The Guardian newspaper highlighted our study as Research of the week and wrote a short commentary on the piece. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
URL | http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2015/feb/20/scientists-teachers-brains-work-weekly-news-r... |
Description | Patient event |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Patients, carers and/or patient groups |
Results and Impact | We held an event at our institution, to showcase the research we have been carrying out with the help of local elderly members of the general public, patient groups and their carers. Approximately 80 people attended, that stimulated further questions, requests to participate and was also a fun event thanking those who have volunteered for their time. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018,2019 |
Description | Podcast Interview with Peak |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | I was interviewed by Peak about neuroscience and the neurobiology/Psychology of motivation. The Podcast will be available to the users of Peak (close to 1m active users) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Professional twitter account |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | I use a professional twitter account to interact with other scientists and the general public and also run our lab twitter account. I have over 2100 followers of which the majority are fellow scientists but also consist of members of the public, clinicians, patients and carers, as well as media outlets. I regularly post and engage with all of these groups and discuss my work, other scientists work and also the work of my lab. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015,2016,2017,2018 |
URL | https://twitter.com/brain_apps |
Description | ResearchResearch.co.uk interview |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | I was interviewed by the editor of the organisation that runs ResearchResearch.com about my research and fellowship. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | TV interview on research on fatigue |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | PhD student Tanja Mueller conducted a TV interview about her research, which was featured in a documentary on German national television. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | UNIQ A-level student hosting |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | 40 A'level students enrolled in University of Oxford's UNIQ program encouraging children from state schools to apply to university and Oxbridge were hosted by me for a day. Many of the students reported that there was an increased chance that they would apply to university, to do Psychology and a general increase in enthusiasm for university applications. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
URL | https://www.uniq.ox.ac.uk |
Description | media interest (BBC news) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | The BBC article resulted in increased attention to my research and also an invite to write an article on the conversation website. In addition, I discussed the results with members of the public on twitter. N/A |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
URL | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-31503265 |
Description | • Invited blog on the conversation website |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | I was invited to write a blog post about a paper that was published in the Journal of Neuroscience. I do not have details about the number of views in total, but it has been shared over 300 times on social media. I would therefore expect that a substantially higher number than this in total. As a result I also engaged with much discussion with members of the public on twitter about what the research can and can't tell us. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
URL | https://theconversation.com/what-goes-on-in-teachers-brains-as-they-help-students-to-learn-37672 |