Morten L Kringelbach is a professor of neuroscience at

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, UK and

Aarhus University Aarhus University ( da, Aarhus Universitet, abbreviated AU) is a public research university with its main campus located in Aarhus, Denmark. It is the second largest and second oldest university in Denmark. The university is part of the Coimbra Gr ...

, Denmark. He is the director of the 'Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing', fellow of

Linacre College, Oxford Linacre College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the UK whose members comprise approximately 50 fellows and 550 postgraduate students. Linacre is a diverse college in terms of both the international composition of its me ...

and board member of the Empathy Museum.

Research overview

Kringelbach has made contributions to a range of topics within

neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, development ...

using

neuroimaging Neuroimaging is the use of quantitative (computational) techniques to study the structure and function of the central nervous system, developed as an objective way of scientifically studying the healthy human brain in a non-invasive manner. Incre ...

deep brain stimulation Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a neurosurgical procedure involving the placement of a medical device called a neurostimulator, which sends electrical impulses, through implanted electrodes, to specific targets in the brain (the brain nucleu ...

and whole-brain modelling. His research is focused on reverse-engineering the

human brain The human brain is the central organ of the human nervous system, and with the spinal cord makes up the central nervous system. The brain consists of the cerebrum, the brainstem and the cerebellum. It controls most of the activities of the ...

and in particular he has identified some of the evolutionary principles and heuristics of ''teleological computation'' enabling us to survive and thrive, which depend on intact human brain systems related to

emotion Emotions are mental states brought on by neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or displeasure. There is currently no scientific consensus on a definition. ...

pleasure Pleasure refers to experience that feels good, that involves the enjoyment of something. It contrasts with pain or suffering, which are forms of feeling bad. It is closely related to value, desire and action: humans and other conscious anima ...

and

eudaimonia Eudaimonia (Greek: εὐδαιμονία ; sometimes anglicized as eudaemonia or eudemonia, ) is a Greek word literally translating to the state or condition of 'good spirit', and which is commonly translated as 'happiness' or 'welfare'. In wor ...

. Together with Kent Berridge he has identified brain mechanisms underlying the

reward system The reward system (the mesocorticolimbic circuit) is a group of neural structures responsible for incentive salience (i.e., "wanting"; desire or craving for a reward and motivation), associative learning (primarily positive reinforcement and class ...

and identified a network of

hedonic hotspots The reward system (the mesocorticolimbic circuit) is a group of neural structures responsible for incentive salience (i.e., "wanting"; desire or craving for a reward and motivation), associative learning (primarily positive reinforcement and clas ...

essential for the fundamental ''pleasure cycle'' of 'wanting', 'liking' and learning. In a large series of neuroimaging studies of many rewards, he has elucidated the spatiotemporal organisation of the

orbitofrontal cortex The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is a prefrontal cortex region in the frontal lobes of the brain which is involved in the cognitive process of decision-making. In non-human primates it consists of the association cortex areas Brodmann area 11, 12 ...

, e.g. demonstrating a fast parental signature of infant cuteness even in adults who are not yet parents. They have also investigated the close links between pleasure and happiness. Kringelbach has also worked with neurosurgeon

Tipu Aziz Tipu Zahed Aziz, Academy of Medical Sciences, United Kingdom, FMedSci ( bn, টিপু আজিজ জাহেদ; born 9 November 1956) is a Bangladeshi-born United Kingdom, British professor of neurosurgery at the John Radcliffe Hospital i ...

to elucidate the neural mechanisms of

for

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

essential tremor Essential tremor (ET), also called benign tremor, familial tremor, and idiopathic tremor, is a medical condition characterized by involuntary rhythmic contractions and relaxations ( oscillations or twitching movements) of certain muscle groups in ...

dystonia Dystonia is a neurological hyperkinetic movement disorder in which sustained or repetitive muscle contractions result in twisting and repetitive movements or abnormal fixed postures. The movements may resemble a tremor. Dystonia is often inten ...

and

chronic pain Chronic pain is classified as pain that lasts longer than three to six months. In medicine, the distinction between Acute (medicine), acute and Chronic condition, chronic pain is sometimes determined by the amount of time since onset. Two commonly ...

Together with Peter Vuust, he founded the 'Center for Music in the Brain' at

University of Aarhus Aarhus University ( da, Aarhus Universitet, abbreviated AU) is a public research university with its main campus located in Aarhus, Denmark. It is the second largest and second oldest university in Denmark. The university is part of the Coimbra Gr ...

focused on better understanding the

neuroscience of music The neuroscience of music is the scientific study of brain-based mechanisms involved in the cognitive processes underlying music. These behaviours include music listening, performing, composing, reading, writing, and ancillary activities. It also ...

and in particular the dual questions of how music is processed in the brain and how this can inform our understanding of fundamental principles behind brain functioning in general. Furthermore, Kringelbach and Gustavo Deco have developed a research programme of whole-brain modelling for combining structural connectivity data

Diffusion Tensor Imaging Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWI or DW-MRI) is the use of specific MRI sequences as well as software that generates images from the resulting data that uses the diffusion of water molecules to generate contrast in MR images. It ...

with

functional neuroimaging Functional neuroimaging is the use of neuroimaging technology to measure an aspect of brain function, often with a view to understanding the relationship between activity in certain brain areas and specific mental functions. It is primarily used a ...

data such as

fMRI Functional magnetic resonance imaging or functional MRI (fMRI) measures brain activity by detecting changes associated with blood flow. This technique relies on the fact that cerebral blood flow and neuronal activation are coupled. When an area o ...

and

magnetoencephalography Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a functional neuroimaging technique for mapping brain activity by recording magnetic fields produced by electrical currents occurring naturally in the brain, using very sensitive magnetometers. Arrays of SQUIDs (su ...

. This allows for the discovery of causal mechanisms of brain function, and they have e.g. identified fundamental mechanisms and principles of integration and segregation, as well as metastability and coherence. In time, these findings might help open up for a better understanding and potential treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders as well as the role of one of the cardinal symptoms, namely

anhedonia Anhedonia is a diverse array of deficits in hedonic function, including reduced motivation or ability to experience pleasure. While earlier definitions emphasized the inability to experience pleasure, anhedonia is currently used by researchers t ...

, the lack of pleasure.

References

Bibliography

;Books: * Kringelbach M.L. & Phillips, H. (2014) Emotion: pleasure and pain in the brain. Oxford: Oxford University Press. * Preston S., Kringelbach M.L. & Knutson, B., eds. (2014) The Interdisciplinary Science of Consumption. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. * Hansen P.C., Kringelbach M.L & Salmelin R, eds. (2010) MEG: an introduction to methods. New York: Oxford University Press. * Cornelissen P.L., Hansen P.C., Kringelbach M.L & Pugh K, eds. (2010) The neural basis of reading. New York: Oxford University Press. * Kringelbach M.L. & Berridge, K.C., eds. (2010) Pleasures of the Brain. New York: Oxford University Press. * Kringelbach M.L (2009) The Pleasure Center. Trust your animal instincts. New York: Oxford University Press (Polish translation (2015)). * Kringelbach M.L (2009) Njótingarsami Heilin (translation P.Nielsen). Thorshavn: Ítriv. * Kringelbach M.L (2008) Den nydelsesfulde hjerne. Nydelsens og begærets mange ansigter. Copenhagen: Gyldendal. * Kringelbach M.L. (2004) Hjernerum. Den følelsesfulde hjerne. Copenhagen: People’sPress. ;Articles
List of All Publications

External links

Hedonia Research Group
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kringelbach, Morten Living people 1970 births Danish expatriates in England Danish neuroscientists Fellows of Linacre College, Oxford

Research overview

See also

References

Bibliography

External links