Embedded Files
Accessible annual narratives of the questions, methods and findings that shaped our research.
Each story brings together a curated selection of Action Lab publications from one year. The prose is written for a broad audience while every scientific claim remains connected to the underlying papers through compact numbered citations and DOI links.
Explore the years
Explore the years
How does the brain turn perception, knowledge and expectation into a well-timed action? In 2025, we followed that question from fundamental neural dynamics to development, expertise and clinical conditions.
30 selected publications · five research threads
In 2024, we examined how the brain assembles actions, changes control modes and adapts its internal state to the demands of a particular moment.
30 selected publications · five research threads
Our 2023 work followed the information inside an action: how it is represented, maintained, reconfigured and translated into adaptive behaviour.
30 selected publications · five research threads
In 2022, we connected moment-to-moment neural signals with the larger states that determine whether behaviour becomes focused, flexible or vulnerable to distraction.
30 selected publications · five research threads
In 2021, we linked the fine-grained contents of an action to development, learning, brain state and clinical variation.
30 selected publications · five research threads
In 2020, we turned cognitive concepts into measurable neural representations and used stimulation, pharmacology and machine learning to test how those representations are controlled.
30 selected publications · five research threads
Our 2019 studies showed that response inhibition cannot be understood without the perceptual, learned and biological context in which stopping becomes necessary.
30 selected publications · five research threads
In 2018, we showed that control depends on where a conflict starts, what information it contains and which person or brain state has to resolve it.
30 selected publications · five research threads
In 2017, we traced cognitive control back to the sensory codes, bodily signals and neuromodulatory systems that prepare an action.
28 selected publications · five research threads
In 2016, we decomposed action control into sensory selection, feature binding, response choice, inhibition and evaluation—and showed that each can change independently.
28 selected publications · five research threads
In 2015, we asked how people organize several actions at once and identified the strategies, brain systems and individual differences that make this possible.
25 selected publications · five research threads
In 2014, we connected the microstructure and chemistry of the striatum to the way people select, monitor and adapt actions under changing demands.
21 selected publications · five research threads
In 2013, we established how genes, brain asymmetries, stress and striatal dynamics shape the selection and evaluation of actions.
14 selected publications · five research threads
How the stories were assembled
How the stories were assembled
The annual PubMed searches were deduplicated by PMID. Research articles and reviews with an abstract and DOI were prioritized; retraction notices, retracted articles, errata, editorials, letters, records without an abstract and records without a DOI were excluded. For years with more than 30 suitable papers, the final narrative selection was capped at 30 using thematic relevance and narrative coverage. Older years with fewer suitable papers include all eligible records.
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