Thomas Akam

Thomas Akam is an Associate Professor of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford's Department of Experimental Psychology. His research investigates neural mechanisms of flexible behavior in complex environments through cognitive mapping and computational modeling approaches.

His work centers on how brains construct internal models for planning, generalization, and hidden structure inference, with primary focus on frontal cortex, hippocampus, and dopamine systems. He employs advanced methodologies including silicon probe electrophysiology, fiber photometry, and optogenetics, integrating theoretical neuroscience with machine learning principles to decode behavioral and neural data.

Recent publications (2024-2025) reveal strong trends in neural circuit mapping of behavioral structure, dopamine-independent reward processing, and methodological innovation in behavioral paradigms. Key themes connect computational modeling of hidden-state inference with experimental validation of neural circuit mechanisms across multiple brain regions.

Dr. Akam has developed two widely adopted open-source neuroscience tools: pyControl for behavioral experiments and pyPhotometry for fiber photometry analysis. He leads the Cognitive Circuits research group at Oxford, emphasizing collaborative development of rich behavioral tasks that generate quantifiable neural datasets while recruiting natural cognitive mechanisms.