Armin Lak
Associate Professor of Neuroscience
- Wellcome Trust Henry Dale Fellow
- St John's College Fellow
I completed my PhD in neuroscience at Cambridge University with Wolfram Schultz, investigating the roles of midbrain dopamine neurons in economic decision making (Lak et al PNAS 2014, Current Biology 2014, eLife 2016, Stauffer et al Cell 2016). As a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellow, I worked with Matteo Carandini, Kenneth Harris and Adam Kepecs at UCL (London) and CSHL (NY). I combined neuronal circuit tools with novel behavioural and computational methods that I developed to investigate the roles that frontal cortex and dopamine neurons play in perceptual and economic decisions (Lak et al Neuron 2014, Cell Reports 2017, Current Biology 2017, Neuron 2019, eLife 2020).
My group aims to gain a quantitative circuit-level understanding of neuronal mechanisms that subserve learning and decision making. We employ a multi-disciplinary approach including high-count electrophysiology, cell type-specific calcium imaging, optogenetic manipulations, highly-controlled behavioural tasks in mice, and computational modelling. My research group is funded by a Sir Henry Dale Fellowship of the Wellcome Trust and the Royal Society, and a ERC Starting Grant.
Colleges
Research groups
Key publications
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Dopaminergic and Prefrontal Basis of Learning from Sensory Confidence and Reward Value.
Journal article
Lak A. et al, (2020), Neuron, 105, 700 - 711.e6
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Reinforcement biases subsequent perceptual decisions when confidence is low, a widespread behavioral phenomenon.
Journal article
Lak A. et al, (2020), Elife, 9
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Midbrain Dopamine Neurons Signal Belief in Choice Accuracy during a Perceptual Decision.
Journal article
Lak A. et al, (2017), Curr Biol, 27, 821 - 832
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Orbitofrontal cortex is required for optimal waiting based on decision confidence.
Journal article
Lak A. et al, (2014), Neuron, 84, 190 - 201
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Dopamine prediction error responses integrate subjective value from different reward dimensions.
Journal article
Lak A. et al, (2014), Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 111, 2343 - 2348
Recent publications
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Dopaminergic computations for perceptual decisions
Journal article
Liebana S. et al, (2024), Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences
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Temporal regularities shape perceptual decisions and striatal dopamine signals.
Journal article
Fritsche M. et al, (2024), Nat Commun, 15
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Dopamine encoding of novelty facilitates efficient uncertainty-driven exploration.
Journal article
Wang Y. et al, (2024), PLoS Comput Biol, 20
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Reward-Bases: Dopaminergic Mechanisms for Adaptive Acquisition of Multiple Reward Types
Preprint
Millidge B. et al, (2023)
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Midbrain dopamine neurons signal phasic and ramping reward prediction error during goal-directed navigation.
Journal article
Farrell K. et al, (2022), Cell Rep, 41