Research

Interoception

I investigate how people perceive and interpret signals from within the body, with a focus on cardiac and respiratory sensations and their role in health and behaviour.

Key Publications

Peripheral beta-blockade differentially enhances cardiac and respiratory interoception Tyrer A, Ehmsen J, Hoogervorst K, Nikolova N, Pando-Naude V, Steenkjær C, Courtin A, Fardo F, Hauser T, Bavato F, et al. bioRxiv, 2025.02 Interoceptive performance is unrelated to mental health symptoms in a large multi-domain psychophysical investigation Banellis L, Nikolova N, Ehmsen J, Courtin A, Vejlø M, Tyrer A, Böhme R, Bavato F, Hoogervorst K, Fardo F, Allen M Nature Mental Health, 1–15 Interoceptive ability is uncorrelated across respiratory and cardiac axes in a large scale psychophysical study Banellis L, Nikolova N, Ehmsen J, Courtin A, Vejlø M, Tyrer A, Böhme R, Fardo F, Allen M Communications Psychology, 4(1), 43

Decision-making

My work examines the cognitive and neural processes that shape decisions, including how people learn from feedback and balance exploration with exploitation.

Key Publications

Cortical Microstructural Variations Correlate with Individual Differences in Gamified Exploration--Exploitation Behaviours Tyrer A, Nikolova N, Dubois M, Banellis L, Vejlø M, Hauser T, Allen M Computational Psychiatry, 10(1) Dissociating Accuracy and Metacognition in Nutritional Judgements Hoogervorst K, Bavato F, Tyrer A, Allen M OSF Preprints, 2026 Dissociable microstructural correlates of learning rate and learning noise in gamified reward-based decision-making Vejlø M, Nikolova N, Banellis L, Tyrer A, Skvortsova V, Hauser T, Allen M bioRxiv, 2026

Dynamic Causal Modelling

I use Dynamic Causal Modelling to test mechanistic accounts of how brain regions interact, and how those interactions change across tasks and clinical conditions.

Key Publications

Lateralized memory circuit dropout in Alzheimer's disease patients Tyrer A, Gilbert J, Adams S, Stiles A, Bankole A, Gilchrist I, Moran R Brain Communications, 2(2), fcaa212 SPM12 Manual — Chapter 44: Dynamic Causal Modelling for Evoked Responses Ashburner J, Barnes G, Chen C, Daunizeau J, Flandin G, Friston K, Kiebel S, Kilner J, Litvak V, Moran R, et al. Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, London, UK. Vol. 2464(4), p. 53

Metacognition

I study how people evaluate the quality of their own judgements, including the relationship between confidence, accuracy, and decision-making.

Key Publications

Dissociating Accuracy and Metacognition in Nutritional Judgements Hoogervorst K, Bavato F, Tyrer A, Allen M OSF Preprints, 2026