Oliver Hulme

Research Interests

I have broad interests in the physical, social, and biological sciences. My main interest is in the brain’s reward system. Put simply: how does it work, and why? I explore mathematical and computational theories that constrain how it should work, and then test the predictions of these theories against behavioral and neuroimaging data. There are two strands to this agenda. The first asks, how do reward computations help shape behaviour to regulate the physiological systems of the body. The second strand draws on physics. I am interested in the constraints that ergodicity imposes on decision-making, and whether such considerations can also offer a unified explanatory account of a number of disparate decision-making phenomena.

Contact Details

Oliver Hulme

Senior Researcher

oliverh@drcmr.dk

Research Areas

Computational and Systems Neuroscience (Coordinator)

Research Groups

Computational Neuroscience of Reward (Leader)

See Full CV

Employments

2020 – Present	Honorary Fellow, Max-Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry & Aging
2019 – Present	External Fellow, London Mathematical Laboratory, UK
2015 – Present	Senior Researcher, Computational Neuroscience of Reward, DRCMR
2011 – 2015	Postdoctoral Researcher, DRCMR
2010 – 2011	Sessional Lecturer, University of British Columbia
2009 – 2009	Visiting Scholar, Welsh Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience
2007 – 2008	Postdoctoral Fellow in Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL

Education

2006	PhD in Neuroimaging, University College London
2002	Special Student, Harvard University
2001	MA in Physiological Sciences, Oxford University

Publications

Lopez-Yepez JS, Barta A, Martin J, Moltesen M, Woo TF, Hulme O, Demir E and Kvitsiani D (2026), 'Time-dependent deployment of medial prefrontal cortical representations in male mice', Nature Communications, 17(1), doi:10.1038/s41467-025-68215-0

Steinkamp SR, Chaker I, Hubert F, Meder D and Hulme OJ (2026), 'Computational parametric mapping of functional neuroimaging data', Imaging Neuroscience, 4, doi:10.1162/IMAG.a.1130

Meder D, Hulme OJ and Siebner HR (2025), unknown publication 2a7fa9c6-cf16-446a-9a5b-68a35518e797, doi:10.1007/978-1-0716-4438-6_27

Demnitz N, Hulme OJ, Siebner HR, Kjaer M, Ebmeier KP, Boraxbekk C and Gillan CM (2023), 'Characterising the covariance pattern between lifestyle factors and structural brain measures: a multivariable replication study of two independent ageing cohorts', Neurobiology of Aging, 131:115-123, doi:10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2023.07.023

Hulme OJ, Roulston B and Overgaard M (2023), 'Does report modality modulate psychophysical sensitivity?: The jury remains out', Frontiers in Psychology, 14:1226588, doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1226588

López-Yépez JS, Martin J, Hulme O and Kvitsiani D (2021), 'Choice history effects in mice and humans improve reward harvesting efficiency', PLOS Computational Biology, 17(10):1-33, doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009452

Meder D, Rabe F, Morville T, Madsen KH, Koudahl MT, Dolan RJ, Siebner HR and Hulme OJ (2021), 'Ergodicity-breaking reveals time optimal decision making in humans', PLOS Computational Biology, 17(9):1-25, doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009217

Morville T, Madsen KH, Siebner HR and Hulme OJ (2021), 'Reward signalling in brainstem nuclei under fluctuating blood glucose', PLOS ONE, 16(4):1-15, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0243899

Friston KJ, Parr T, Zeidman P, Razi A, Flandin G, Daunizeau J, Hulme OJ, Billig AJ, Litvak V, Price CJ, Moran RJ and Lambert C (2020), 'Second waves, social distancing, and the spread of COVID-19 across the USA', Wellcome Open Research, 5(103):1-39, doi:10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15986.3

Friston KJ, Parr T, Zeidman P, Razi A, Flandin G, Daunizeau J, Hulme OJ, Billig AJ, Litvak V, Moran RJ, Price CJ and Lambert C (2020), 'Dynamic causal modelling of COVID-19', Wellcome Open Research, 5(89):1-46, doi:10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15881.2

Friston KJ, Parr T, Zeidman P, Razi A, Flandin G, Daunizeau J, Hulme O, Billig AJ, Litvak V, Price CJ, Moran RJ and Lambert C (2020), 'Testing and tracking in the UK: A dynamic causal modelling study [version 1; peer review: 1 approved with reservations, 1 not approved]', Wellcome Open Research, 5(144):1-24, doi:10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16004.1

Faranda D, Pérez Castillo I, Hulme O, Jezequel A, Lamb JSW, Sato Y and Thompson EL (2020), 'Asymptotic estimates of SARS-CoV-2 infection counts and their sensitivity to stochastic perturbation', Chaos, 30(5):1-10, doi:10.1063/5.0008834

Van der Vegt JPM, Hulme OJ, Madsen KH, Buhmann C, Bloem BR, Münchau A, Helmich RC and Siebner HR (2020), 'Dopamine agonist treatment increases sensitivity to gamble outcomes in the hippocampus in de novo Parkinson's disease', NeuroImage: Clinical, 28:1-8, doi:10.1016/j.nicl.2020.102362

Friston KJ, Parr T, Zeidman P, Razi A, Flandin G, Daunizeau J, Hulme OJ, Billig AJ, Litvak V, Price CJ, Moran RJ, Costello A, Pillay D and Lambert C (2020), 'Effective immunity and second waves: a dynamic causal modelling study', Wellcome Open Research, 5:1-27, doi:10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16253.2

Friston KJ, Parr T, Zeidman P, Razi A, Flandin G, Daunizeau J, Hulme OJ, Billig AJ, Litvak V, Price CJ, Moran RJ and Lambert C (2020), 'Second waves, social distancing, and the spread of COVID-19 across America [version 1; peer review: 2 approved with reservations]', Wellcome Open Research, 5:1-33, doi:10.12688/WELLCOMEOPENRES.15986.1

Hulme OJ, Morville T and Gutkin B (2019), 'Neurocomputational theories of homeostatic control', Physics of Life Reviews, 31:214-232, doi:10.1016/j.plrev.2019.07.005

Hulme OJ and Kvitsiani D (2019), 'Extending models of "How Foraging Works": Uncertainty, controllability, and survivability', Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 42, doi:10.1017/S0140525X18002017

Christensen BJ, Schmidt JB, Nielsen MS, Tækker L, Holm L, Lunn S, Bredie WLP, Ritz C, Holst JJ, Hansen T, Hilbert A, Le Roux CW, Hulme OJ, Siebner H, Morville T, Naver L, Floyd AK and Sjödin A (2018), 'Patient profiling for success after weight loss surgery (GO Bypass study): An interdisciplinary study protocol', Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications, 10:121-130, doi:10.1016/j.conctc.2018.02.002

Hallsson BG, Siebner HR and Hulme OJ (2018), 'Fairness, fast and slow: A review of dual process models of fairness', Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 89:49-60, doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2018.02.016

Meder D, Kolling N, Verhagen L, Wittmann MK, Scholl J, Madsen KH, Hulme OJ, Behrens TEJ and Rushworth MFS (2017), 'Simultaneous representation of a spectrum of dynamically changing value estimates during decision making', Nature Communications, 8(1942), doi:10.1038/s41467-017-02169-w

Friis-Olivarius M, Hulme OJ, Skov M, Ramsøy TZ and Siebner HR (2017), 'Imaging the Creative Unconscious: Reflexive Neural Responses to Objects in the Visual and Parahippocampal Region Predicts State and Trait Creativity', Scientific Reports, 7:1-8, doi:10.1038/s41598-017-14729-7

Morville T, Siebner HR and Hulme OJ (2017), 'Homeostatic Choice Theory'

Meder D, Madsen KH, Hulme O and Siebner HR (2016), 'Chasing probabilities - Signaling negative and positive prediction errors across domains', NeuroImage, 134:180-191, doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.04.019

Meder D, Haagensen BN, Hulme O, Morville T, Gelskov S, Herz DM, Diomsina B, Christensen MS, Madsen KH and Siebner HR (2016), 'Tuning the Brake While Raising the Stake: Network Dynamics during Sequential Decision-Making', Neuroscience Journal, 36(19):5417-5426, doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3191-15.2016

Hulme OJ, Skov M, Chadwick MJ, Siebner HR and Ramsøy TZ (2014), 'Sparse encoding of automatic visual association in hippocampal networks', NeuroImage, 102 Pt 2:458-464, doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2014.07.020

Chumbley JR, Hulme O, Köchli H, Russell E, Van Uum S, A Pizzagalli D and Fehr E (2014), 'Stress and reward: long term cortisol exposure predicts the strength of sexual preference', Physiology and Behavior, 131:33-40, doi:10.1016/j.physbeh.2014.04.013

Herz DM, Christensen MS, Bruggemann N, Hulme OJ, Ridderinkhof KR, Madsen KH and Siebner HR (2014), 'Motivational tuning of fronto-subthalamic connectivity facilitates control of action impulses', Neuroscience Journal, 34(9):3210-3217, doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4081-13.2014

Herz DM, Siebner HR, Hulme OJ, Florin E, Christensen MS and Timmermann L (2014), 'Levodopa reinstates connectivity from prefrontal to premotor cortex during externally paced movement in Parkinson's disease', NeuroImage, 90:15, doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.11.023

Van der Vegt JPM, Hulme OJ, Zittel S, Madsen KH, Weiss MM, Buhmann C, Bloem BR, Münchau A and Siebner HR (2013), 'Attenuated neural response to gamble outcomes in drug-naive patients with Parkinson's disease', Brain, 136(Pt 4):1192-1203, doi:10.1093/brain/awt027

Kirk U, Skov M, Hulme O, Christensen MS and Zeki S (2009), 'Modulation of aesthetic value by semantic context: An fMRI study', NeuroImage, 44(3):1125-1132, doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2008.10.009

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