Dr Matthew Apps BSc, MSc, PhD

Dr Matthew Apps

School of Psychology
Senior Research Fellow (≈Associate Professor) / BBSRC David Phillips Fellow

Dr. Apps is a leading expert in the computational, cognitive and neural basis of motivation and social behaviour. More info about the labs work can be found here: www.MSN-lab.com

Qualifications

BSc.(Hons.) Psychology,

MSc. Psychological Research Methods,

PhD. in Cognitive Neuroscience

Biography

Dr. Apps obtained a First-class BSc. in Psychology from Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL_, before receiving a ESRC 1+3 scholarship to complete an MSc (with Distinction) at Reading University and a PhD at RHUL, under the supervision of Prof. Narender Ramnani. He undertook postdoctoral positions first under the supervision of Prof. Manos Tsakiris at RHUL and then moving to the University of Oxford with Prof, Masud Husain. In 2015 Dr. Apps was awarded a BBSRC Future Leader Fellowship at the University of Oxford, and subsequently started the MSN lab on a 5-year ~£1.2m BBSRC David Phillips Fellowship in 2018. He joined the Centre for Human Brain Health, Institute of Mental Health and School of Psychology at University of Birmingham as a Senior Research Fellow (≈Associate Professor) in summer 2020. He is also a Senior Associate Research Fellow at Christ Church college, Oxford.

Postgraduate supervision

Dr. Apps is keen to hear from interested potential PhD students to discuss funding possibilities. Please send him a brief email with CV and reason for interest in the MSN lab.

Research

The Psychological and Biological basis of motivation, decision-making, cognitive control, and social cognition.

Other activities

Awards

o             University of Oxford Recognition of Excellence (2019)

o             Society for Social Neuroscience Early Career Award (2018)

o             Christ Church college Senior Associate Research Fellowship (2018-2023)

o             University Research Lecturer honorary title (2017)

o             European Society for Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience (ESCAN) Young Scientist Award (2016)

o             Society for Neuroscience Professional Development Award (2016)

o             Fulford Junior Research Fellowship at Somerville College, Oxford (2014-2016)

o             OHBM Trainee Award  (2009 & 2015)

 

Responsibilities

o            Editorial Board member at Nature Publishing Group, Scientific Reports (2017 - present)

o             Board member for the Society for Social Neuroscience (2019 – present)

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Contreras-Huerta, LS, Pisauro, MA, Küchenhoff, S, Gekiere, A, Le Heron, C, Lockwood, PL & Apps, MAJ 2024, 'A reward self-bias leads to more optimal foraging for ourselves than others', Scientific Reports, vol. 14, no. 1, 26845. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-69452-x

Lockwood, PL, Cutler, J, Drew, D, Abdurahman, A, Jeyaretna, DS, Apps, MAJ, Husain, M & Manohar, SG 2024, 'Human ventromedial prefrontal cortex is necessary for prosocial motivation', Nature Human Behaviour. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-01899-4

Su, Z, Garvert, MM, Zhang, L, Manohar, SG, Vogel, TA, Thomas, L, Balsters, JH, Husain, M, Apps, MAJ & Lockwood, PL 2024, 'Older adults are relatively more susceptible to impulsive social influence than young adults', Communications Psychology, vol. 2, no. 1, 87. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-024-00134-0

Gaule, A, Martin, P, Lockwood, PL, Cutler, J, Apps, M, Roberts, R, Phillips, H, Brown, K, McCrory, EJ & Viding, E 2024, 'Reduced prosocial motivation and effort in adolescents with conduct problems and callous‐unemotional traits', Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13945

Gabay, AS, Pisauro, A, O’Nell, KC & Apps, MAJ 2024, 'Social environment-based opportunity costs dictate when people leave social interactions', Communications Psychology, vol. 2, no. 1, 42. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-024-00094-5

The International Climate Psychology Collaboration, Contreras-Huerta, LS & Elsherif, M 2024, 'The International Climate Psychology Collaboration: Climate change-related data collected from 63 countries', Scientific Data, vol. 11, 1066. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03865-1

Matthews, J, Pisauro, A, Jurgelis, M, Müller, T, Vassena, E, Chong, TT-J & Apps, M 2023, 'Computational mechanisms underlying the dynamics of physical and cognitive fatigue', Cognition, vol. 240, 105603. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105603

Contreras-Huerta, LS, Coll, M-P, Bird, G, Yu, H, Prosser, A, Lockwood, PL, Murphy, J, Crockett, MJ & Apps, MAJ 2023, 'Neural representations of vicarious rewards are linked to interoception and prosocial behaviour', NeuroImage, vol. 269, 119881. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.119881

International Collaboration on the Social & Moral Psychology of COVID-19 2023, 'Social and moral psychology of COVID-19 across 69 countries', Scientific Data, vol. 10, no. 1, 272. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02080-8

Lockwood, P, Wittmann, MK, Nili, H, Matsumoto-Ryan, M, Abdurahman, A, Cutler, J, Husain, M & Apps, M 2022, 'Distinct neural representations for prosocial and self-benefiting effort', Current Biology, vol. 32, no. 19, pp. 4172-4185.e7. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.09.27.461936, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.08.010

Scholey, E & Apps, MAJ 2022, 'Fatigue: Tough days at work change your prefrontal metabolites', Current Biology, vol. 32, no. 16, pp. R876-R879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.06.088

Preprint

Su, Z, Garvert, MM, Zhang, L, Manohar, S, Vogel, TA, Thomas, L, Balsters, JH, Husain, M, Apps, MAJ & Lockwood, PL 2024 'Older adults are more susceptible to impulsive social influence' PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/zdr7q

Forbes, P, Aydogan, G, Braunstein, J, Todorova, B, Wagner, I, Lockwood, P, Apps, MAJ, Ruff, C & Lamm, C 2022 'Acute stress reduces effortful prosocial behaviour' PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/mgn32

Contreras-Huerta, LS, Pisauro, MA, Kuechenhoff, S, Gekiere, A, Heron, CL, Lockwood, P & Apps, MAJ 2022 'A reward self-bias leads to more optimal foraging for ourselves than others' PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/8r45z

Review article

Ricciardi, L, Apps, M & Little, S 2023, 'Uncovering the neurophysiology of mood, motivation and behavioral symptoms in Parkinson’s disease through intracranial recordings', npj Parkinson's Disease, vol. 9, no. 1, 136. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41531-023-00567-0

View all publications in research portal