Dr. Mark Walton

Biography

Mark Walton is a Professor of Behavioural Neuroscience in the Department of Experimental Psychology. He serves as the current Trustee for Preclinical Neuroscience at the British Neuroscience Association. His research laboratory, established in 2010, investigates the neural mechanisms underlying motivation and adaptive decision making, with a particular focus on how neurochemicals such as dopamine regulate these processes on a moment-by-moment timescale in rodents. The lab employs a multidisciplinary approach with a strong emphasis on behaviour, drawing inspiration from behavioural ecology, animal learning theory, neuroeconomics, and psychology to unravel complex brain-behaviour relationships. Walton is known for pioneering the use of cutting-edge methods to record and manipulate dopamine release in rodents within novel decision-making paradigms. His work is advancing understanding of how dopamine, in conjunction with broader cortical-basal ganglia circuits, regulates actions, persistence, and the ability to switch to new tasks. The lab's long-term goal is to leverage insights from functional systems to understand how valuation processes in decision making can go awry in neuropsychiatric disorders. The laboratory utilizes a range of recording and interference techniques to tackle critical questions, including fibre photometry, electrochemistry, optogenetics, neuropharmacological manipulations, and genetic techniques, and is particularly interested in using combinations of these techniques to investigate communication and causal interactions within brain networks.

Research Interests