Dr Christopher Nolan

Dr Christopher Nolan

Postdoctoral Fellow
Science
School of Psychology

I am a computational neuroscientist interested in embodied intelligence; how brains have evolved to satisfy complex needs in complex environments. My research focuses on finding mechanistic motifs in the neural circuits underlying memory and decision making processes. I work both on developing models of neural circuits to demonstrate feasibility by example, and on building analysis pipelines to improve our inferential ability over large, complex neural datasets.

Location
Level 4, Mathews Building
  • Journal articles | 2026
    Abiero AR; Gladding JM; Iredale JA; Drury HR; Manning EE; Dayas CV; Dhungana A; Ganesan K; Turner K; Becchi S; Kendig MD; Nolan C; Balleine B; Castorina A; Cole L; Clemens KJ; Bradfield LA, 2026, 'Dorsomedial striatal neuroinflammation causes excessive goal-directed action control by disrupting astrocyte function', Neuropsychopharmacology, 51, pp. 486 - 496, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41386-025-02247-4
    Journal articles | 2024
    Ferguson LA; Matamales M; Nolan C; Balleine BW; Bertran-Gonzalez J, 2024, 'Adaptation of sequential action benefits from timing variability related to lateral basal ganglia circuitry', Iscience, 27, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2024.109274
    Journal articles | 2024
    Garner KG; Leow LA; Uchida A; Nolan C; Jensen O; Garrido MI; Dux PE, 2024, 'Assessing the influence of dopamine and mindfulness on the formation of routines in visual search', Psychophysiology, 61, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/psyp.14571
    Journal articles | 2024
    Garner KG; Nolan CR; Nydam A; Nott Z; Bowman H; Dux PE, 2024, 'Quantifying Error in Effect Size Estimates in Attention, Executive Function, and Implicit Learning', Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cognition, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xlm0001338
    Journal articles | 2024
    Hart G; Burton TJ; Nolan CR; Balleine BW, 2024, 'Striatal dopamine release tracks the relationship between actions and their consequences', Cell Reports, 43, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2024.113828
    Journal articles | 2024
    Park J; Lingawi NW; Crimmins BE; Gladding JM; Nolan CR; Burton TJ; Laurent V, 2024, 'Stimulus–Outcome Associations Are Required for the Expression of Specific Pavlovian-Instrumental Transfer', Journal of Experimental Psychology Animal Learning and Cognition, 50, pp. 25 - 38, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xan0000371
    Journal articles | 2021
    Gau R; Noble S; Heuer K; Bottenhorn KL; Bilgin IP; Yang YF; Huntenburg JM; Bayer JMM; Bethlehem RAI; Rhoads SA; Vogelbacher C; Borghesani V; Levitis E; Wang HT; Van Den Bossche S; Kobeleva X; Legarreta JH; Guay S; Atay SM; Varoquaux GP; Huijser DC; Sandström MS; Herholz P; Nastase SA; Badhwar AP; Dumas G; Schwab S; Moia S; Dayan M; Bassil Y; Brooks PP; Mancini M; Shine JM; O'Connor D; Xie X; Poggiali D; Friedrich P; Heinsfeld AS; Riedl L; Toro R; Caballero-Gaudes C; Eklund A; Garner KG; Nolan CR; Demeter DV; Barrios FA; Merchant JS; McDevitt EA; Oostenveld R; Craddock RC; Rokem A; Doyle A; Ghosh SS; Nikolaidis A; Stanley OW; Uruñuela E; Anousheh N; Arnatkeviciute A; Auzias G; Bachar D; Bannier E; Basanisi R; Basavaraj A; Bedini M; Bellec P; Benn RA; Berluti K; Bollmann S; Bollmann S; Bradley C; Brown J; Buchweitz A; Callahan P; Chan MY; Chandio BQ; Cheng T; Chopra S; Chung AW; Close TG; Combrisson E; Cona G; Constable RT; Cury C; Dadi K; Damasceno PF; Das S; De Vico Fallani F; DeStasio K; Dickie EW; Dorfschmidt L; Duff EP; DuPre E; Dziura S; Esper NB; Esteban O; Fadnavis S; Flandin G; Flannery JE; Flournoy J; Forkel SJ, 2021, 'Brainhack: Developing a culture of open, inclusive, community-driven neuroscience', Neuron, 109, pp. 1769 - 1775, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2021.04.001
    Journal articles | 2021
    McFadyen J; Nolan C; Pinocy E; Buteri D; Baumann O, 2021, 'Doorways do not always cause forgetting: a multimodal investigation', BMC Psychology, 9, http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40359-021-00536-3
    Journal articles | 2021
    Wang C; Furlong TM; Stratton PG; Lee CCY; Xu L; Merlin S; Nolan C; Arabzadeh E; Marek R; Sah P, 2021, 'Hippocampus–prefrontal coupling regulates recognition memory for novelty discrimination', Journal of Neuroscience, 34, pp. 9617 - 9632, http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1202-21.2021
    Journal articles | 2014
    Ball D; Kliese R; Windels F; Nolan C; Stratton P; Sah P; Wiles J, 2014, 'Rodent Scope: A User-Configurable Digital Wireless Telemetry System for Freely Behaving Animals', PLOS ONE, 9, http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0089949
    Journal articles | 2011
    Nolan CR; Wyeth G; Milford M; Wiles J, 2011, 'The Race to Learn: Spike Timing and STDP Can Coordinate Learning and Recall in CA3', HIPPOCAMPUS, 21, pp. 647 - 660, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hipo.20777
    Journal articles |
    Nolan CR; Vromen JMG; Cheung A; Baumann O, 'Evidence against the Detectability of a Hippocampal Place Code Using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging', ENEURO, 5, http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0177-18.2018
  • Preprints | 2026
    Barnes L; Nolan CR; Chung E; Welagedera D; Le Pelley M; Garner K, 2026, Contextual clarity during training hinders learning transfer but spares task-switching, http://dx.doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/znh47_v1
    Preprints | 2026
    Nolan C; Le Pelley M; Garner K, 2026, Towards the definition and measurement of routines and the cognitive processes that underpin their maintenance, http://dx.doi.org/10.64898/2026.03.26.714585
    Preprints | 2024
    Abiero AR; Gladding J; Iredale J; Drury H; Manning E; Dayas C; Dhungana A; Ganesan K; Turner K; Becchi S; Kendig M; Nolan C; Balleine B; Castorina A; Cole L; Clemens K; Bradfield L, 2024, Dorsomedial striatal neuroinflammation causes excessive goal-directed action control by disrupting astrocyte function, http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/2024.10.24.620154
    Preprints | 2024
    Garner K; Leow L-A; Uchida A; Nolan CR; Jensen O; Garrido M; Dux PE, 2024, Assessing the influence of dopamine and mindfulness on the formation of routines in visual search, http://dx.doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/2rd8n
    Preprints | 2022
    Garner K; Nolan CR; Nydam A; Nott Z; Bowman H; Dux PE, 2022, Quantifying Error in Effect Size Estimates in Attention, Executive Function and Implicit Learning, http://dx.doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/982mb
    Preprints | 2022
    Hart G; Burton TJ; Nolan CR; Balleine BW, 2022, Striatal dopamine encodes the relationship between actions and reward, http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.31.478585