HORMONES, PREDICTION AND PSYCHOSIS: HOW REPRODUCTIVE TRANSITIONS SHAPE BELIEF UPDATING IN THE BRAIN
Deadline for Application: 12.00 noon (UK time), Friday 27th November 2026. Please note: this deadline is before the University's December deadline.
Studentship Code: 27PSYCH03WEB
We are inviting applications for a PhD studentship to investigate whether fluctuations in sex hormones alter how the brain weighs prior expectations against new sensor evidence, a fundamental computation implicated in hallucinations and delusions. The successful applicant will join the research groups of Rob McCutcheon (oxfordpsychosis.com) and Laurence Hunt (huntlab.co.uk), and also receive supervision from Dr Bodyl Brand. Rob McCutcheon’s group studies the neurobiology of psychosis and its treatment, including cognition and sex differences in schizophrenia. Laurence Hunt’s group combines computational modelling with EEG and other neuroimaging to understand how the brain makes decisions and learns in changing environments. It has developed new continuous paradigms that give reliable neural measures in individual people. Bodyl Brand studies how sex hormones, the menstrual cycle and the menopause shape the course and treatment of schizophrenia.
