Charlotte Collingwood

(Computational) Neuroscientist & Oxford Sparks Ambassador (2021-22 cohort)

I’m a computational neuroscientist in the first year of my DPhil (PhD) at Oxford. I first started studying the brain during my undergraduate degree, and very quickly became fascinated with how we can explain effects as intangible and undefinable as emotions and psychological health with something as real and grounded as biology.

Now, my research uses maths and coding to test whether our theories of how brain networks create these psychological effects actually work. Specifically, I’m interested in creating models of how strong habits are made in the brain during addiction and discovering why these behaviours are so hard to get rid of. These models will hopefully give clues to how we can overcome bad habits everywhere and help guide better treatment.