Oliver Hulme

Senior Researcher

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.

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

[7176c03f-1fa1-46da-97a8-b2e3af7e330d d263ef6d-c108-4b8f-ba52-41660a5c8fd2 24f39aad-dc06-4c68-a20a-1deed570c1ac]

Demnitz N, Hulme OJ, Siebner HR, Kjaer M, Ebmeier KP, Boraxbekk C & Gillan CM, Characterising the covariance pattern between lifestyle factors and structural brain measures: a multivariable replication study of two independent ageing cohorts,

[map[#text:Neurobiology of Aging -lang:en] map[#text:Neurobiol Aging -lang:en]] 

  vol 131, p. 115-123, (2023). DOI:10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2023.07.023

Hulme OJ, Roulston B & Overgaard M, Does report modality modulate psychophysical sensitivity?: The jury remains out,

[map[#text:Frontiers in Psychology -lang:en] map[#text:Frontiers in Psychology -lang:en]] 

  vol 14, p. 1226588-1226588, (2023). DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1226588

López-Yépez JS, Martin J, Hulme O & Kvitsiani D, Choice history effects in mice and humans improve reward harvesting efficiency

[map[#text:PLOS Computational Biology -lang:en] map[#text:P L o S Computational Biology -lang:en]] 

  vol 17, Issue 10, p. 1-33, (2021). DOI:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009452

Meder D, Rabe F, Morville T, Madsen KH, Koudahl MT, Dolan RJ, Siebner HR & Hulme OJ, Ergodicity-breaking reveals time optimal decision making in humans

[map[#text:PLOS Computational Biology -lang:en] map[#text:P L o S Computational Biology -lang:en]] 

  vol 17, Issue 9, p. 1-25, (2021). DOI:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009217

Morville T, Madsen KH, Siebner HR & Hulme OJ, Reward signalling in brainstem nuclei under fluctuating blood glucose

[map[#text:PLOS ONE -lang:en] map[#text:P L o S One -lang:en] map[#text:PLoS One -lang:en]] 

  vol 16, Issue 4, p. 1-15, (2021). 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 & Lambert C, Second waves, social distancing, and the spread of COVID-19 across the USA

map[#text:Wellcome Open Research -lang:en] 

Wellcome Open Research  vol 5, Issue 103, p. 1-39, (2020). 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 & Lambert C, Dynamic causal modelling of COVID-19

map[#text:Wellcome Open Research -lang:en] 

Wellcome Open Research  vol 5, Issue 89, p. 1-46, (2020). 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 & Lambert C, Testing and tracking in the UK: A dynamic causal modelling study [version 1; peer review: 1 approved with reservations, 1 not approved]

map[#text:Wellcome Open Research -lang:en] 

Wellcome Open Research  vol 5, Issue 144, p. 1-24, (2020). DOI:10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16004.1

Faranda D, Pérez Castillo I, Hulme O, Jezequel A, Lamb JSW, Sato Y & Thompson EL, Asymptotic estimates of SARS-CoV-2 infection counts and their sensitivity to stochastic perturbation

[map[#text:Chaos -lang:en] map[#text:Chaos (Woodbury, N.Y.) -lang:en]] 

  vol 30, Issue 5, p. 1-10, (2020). DOI:10.1063/5.0008834

van der Vegt JPM, Hulme OJ, Madsen KH, Buhmann C, Bloem BR, Münchau A, Helmich RC & Siebner HR, Dopamine agonist treatment increases sensitivity to gamble outcomes in the hippocampus in de novo Parkinson's disease

[map[#text:NeuroImage: Clinical -lang:en] map[#text:NeuroImage. Clinical -lang:en]] 

  vol 28, p. 1-8, (2020). 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 & Lambert C, Effective immunity and second waves: a dynamic causal modelling study,

map[#text:Wellcome Open Research -lang:en] 

Wellcome Open Research  vol 5, p. 1-27, (2020). 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 & Lambert C, Second waves, social distancing, and the spread of COVID-19 across America [version 1; peer review: 2 approved with reservations],

map[#text:Wellcome Open Research -lang:en] 

Wellcome Open Research  vol 5, p. 1-33, (2020). DOI:10.12688/WELLCOMEOPENRES.15986.1

Hulme OJ & Kvitsiani D, Extending models of "How Foraging Works": Uncertainty, controllability, and survivability,

map[#text:Behavioral and Brain Sciences -lang:en] 

Behavioral and Brain Sciences  vol 42, e43, (2019). 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 & Sjödin A, Patient profiling for success after weight loss surgery (GO Bypass study): An interdisciplinary study protocol,

map[#text:Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications -lang:en] 

Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications  vol 10, p. 121-130, (2018). DOI:10.1016/j.conctc.2018.02.002

Meder D, Kolling N, Verhagen L, Wittmann MK, Scholl J, Madsen KH, Hulme OJ, Behrens TEJ & Rushworth MFS, Simultaneous representation of a spectrum of dynamically changing value estimates during decision making

[map[#text:Nature Communications -lang:en] map[#text:Nature Communications -lang:en]] 

  vol 8, Issue 1942, (2017). DOI:10.1038/s41467-017-02169-w

Friis-Olivarius M, Hulme OJ, Skov M, Ramsøy TZ & Siebner HR, Imaging the Creative Unconscious: Reflexive Neural Responses to Objects in the Visual and Parahippocampal Region Predicts State and Trait Creativity,

[map[#text:Scientific Reports -lang:en] map[#text:Scientific Reports -lang:en]] 

  vol 7, p. 1-8, (2017). DOI:10.1038/s41598-017-14729-7

Meder D, Madsen KH, Hulme O & Siebner HR, Chasing probabilities - Signaling negative and positive prediction errors across domains

map[#text:NeuroImage -lang:en] 

NeuroImage  vol 134, p. 180-191, (2016). 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 & Siebner HR, Tuning the Brake While Raising the Stake: Network Dynamics during Sequential Decision-Making,

[map[#text:Neuroscience Journal -lang:en] map[#text:Journal of Neuroscience -lang:en] map[#text:The European journal of neuroscience -lang:en] map[#text:The Journal of Neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience -lang:en] map[#text:J Neurosci -lang:en]] 

  vol 36, Issue 19, p. 5417-5426, (2016). DOI:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3191-15.2016

Hulme OJ, Skov M, Chadwick MJ, Siebner HR & Ramsøy TZ, Sparse encoding of automatic visual association in hippocampal networks

map[#text:NeuroImage -lang:en] 

NeuroImage  vol 102 Pt 2, p. 458-464, (2014). DOI:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2014.07.020

Chumbley JR, Hulme O, Köchli H, Russell E, Van Uum S, A Pizzagalli D & Fehr E, Stress and reward: long term cortisol exposure predicts the strength of sexual preference,

[map[#text:Physiology and Behavior -lang:en] map[#text:Physiology & Behavior -lang:en]] 

  vol 131, p. 33-40, (2014). DOI:10.1016/j.physbeh.2014.04.013

Herz DM, Christensen MS, Bruggemann N, Hulme OJ, Ridderinkhof KR, Madsen KH & Siebner HR, Motivational tuning of fronto-subthalamic connectivity facilitates control of action impulses

[map[#text:Neuroscience Journal -lang:en] map[#text:Journal of Neuroscience -lang:en] map[#text:The European journal of neuroscience -lang:en] map[#text:The Journal of Neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience -lang:en] map[#text:J Neurosci -lang:en]] 

  vol 34, Issue 9, p. 3210-3217, (2014). DOI:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4081-13.2014

Herz DM, Siebner HR, Hulme OJ, Florin E, Christensen MS & Timmermann L, Levodopa reinstates connectivity from prefrontal to premotor cortex during externally paced movement in Parkinson's disease

map[#text:NeuroImage -lang:en] 

NeuroImage  vol 90, p. 15-15, (2014). 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 & Siebner HR, Attenuated neural response to gamble outcomes in drug-naive patients with Parkinson's disease

[map[#text:Brain -lang:en] map[#text:Brain -lang:en] map[#text:Brain : a journal of neurology -lang:en]] 

  vol 136, Issue Pt 4, p. 1192-1203, (2013). DOI:10.1093/brain/awt027

Kirk U, Skov M, Hulme O, Christensen MS & Zeki S, Modulation of aesthetic value by semantic context: An fMRI study

map[#text:NeuroImage -lang:en] 

NeuroImage  vol 44, Issue 3, p. 1125-1132, (2009). DOI:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2008.10.009


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