Professor Patricia Lockwood BSc, PhD

Professor Patricia Lockwood

School of Psychology
Professor of Decision Neuroscience

Professor Patricia Lockwood is a cognitive and social neuroscientist. She is head of the Social Decision Neuroscience Lab. Her work focuses on the neurocognitive foundations of social learning and decision-making across the lifespan and in psychiatric and neurological disorders.

Qualifications

PhD Biomedical Sciences, University College London, Awarded Frith Prize for Exceptional Doctoral Contributions

First Class BSc (Hons) Psychology and Philosophy, University of Bristol. Awarded BPS Award for Undergraduate Psychology and Henri Tajfel Prize for Social Psychology.

Biography

Professor Patricia Lockwood is a Wellcome Trust/Royal Society Sir Henry Dale Fellow and Jacobs Foundation Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham. She was previously a Junior Research Fellow at Christ Church and Somerville College, University of Oxford, and a Medical Research Council Fellow at the University of Birmingham, University of Oxford and University of Zurich.

She holds a PhD in Psychology from University College London and a BSc in Psychology and Philosophy from the University of Bristol. Her lab investigates social learning and decision-making across the lifespan and in neurological and psychiatric disorders using a mixture of computational modelling, behavioural measures, self report, patient studies and neuroimaging.

Her work has received multiple awards (S4SN Early Career Award, APS Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions), she is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and a member of the Women of the Future Network. You can read more about the lab here: www.sdn-lab.org

Postgraduate supervision

PhD students: Students interested in working with Professor Lockwood  should email her to discuss potential funding opportunities. For further information regarding the PhD application process see the 'how to apply' section of the Psychology PhD programme.

Postdoctoral researchers: Professor Lockwood is also looking for excellent and motivated postdoctoral researchers and can advise and assist with obtaining funding. Please contact her to discuss further.

Research

Social learning, decision-making, motivation, lifespan research, conduct problems, brain imaging, computational modelling, empathy, apathy

Publications

Highlight publications

Cutler, J, Nitschke, JP, Lamm, C & Lockwood, PL 2021, 'Older adults across the globe exhibit increased prosocial behavior but also greater in-group preferences', Nature Aging, vol. 1, pp. 880–888. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-021-00118-3

Cutler, J, Wittmann, MK, Abdurahman, A, Hargitai, LD, Drew, D, Husain, M & Lockwood, PL 2021, 'Ageing is associated with disrupted reinforcement learning whilst learning to help others is preserved', Nature Communications, vol. 12, no. 1, 4440. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24576-w

Lockwood, PL, Apps, MAJ, Valton, V, Viding, E & Roiser, JP 2016, 'Neurocomputational mechanisms of prosocial learning and links to empathy', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 113, no. 35, pp. 9763–9768. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1603198113

Lockwood, PL, Hamonet, M, Zhang, SH, Ratnavel, A, Salmony, FU, Husain, M & Apps, MAJ 2017, 'Prosocial apathy for helping others when effort is required', Nature Human Behaviour, vol. 1, no. 7, 0131. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-017-0131

Lockwood, PL, Klein-Flügge, MC, Abdurahman, A & Crockett, MJ 2020, 'Model-free decision making is prioritized when learning to avoid harming others', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 117, no. 44, pp. 27719-27730. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2010890117

Recent publications

Book

Smith, DV, Lockwood, PL & Fareri, DS (eds) 2026, Neuroeconomics: Core Topics and Current Directions. 1 edn, Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-02925-6

Article

Chang, SWC & Lockwood, PL 2026, 'Central Questions for Social Neuroscience Research', The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, vol. 46, no. 8, e0123262026. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0123-26.2026

Vogel, TA, Priestley, L, Cutler, J, Hogg, T, Khalighinejad, N, Garrett, N, Apps, MAJ, Rushworth, MFS & Lockwood, PL 2026, 'Humans are more prosocial in poor foraging environments', Nature Communications, vol. 17, 483. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-66880-9

Elster, EM, Pauli, R, Fairchild, G, McDonald, M, Baumann, S, Sidlauskaite, J, De Brito, S, Freitag, CM, Konrad, K, Roessner, V, Brazil, IA, Lockwood, PL & Kohls, G 2025, 'Altered Neural Responses to Punishment Learning in Conduct Disorder', Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2025.01.003

Rush, P, Keating, C, Lugtmeijer, S, Allmark, E, Davis, A, Beejadhur, A, Tarling, A, Todd, K, Hannon, S, Iddles, A, Vichare, C, Gachomba, MJM, Lockwood, P, Apps, M & Sowden-Carvalho, S 2025, 'Autistic and non-autistic prosocial decision-making: The impact of recipient neurotype', Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, vol. 128, 202710 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.reia.2025.202710

Wittmann, MK, Lin, Y, Pan, D, Braun, MN, Dickson, C, Spiering, L, Luo, S, Harbison, C, Abdurahman, A, Hamilton, S, Faber, NS, Khalighinejad, N, Lockwood, PL & Rushworth, MFS 2025, 'Basis functions for complex social decisions in dorsomedial frontal cortex', Nature, vol. 641, no. 8063, pp. 707-717. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08705-9

Pauli, R, Brazil, I, Kohls, G, Hauser, TU, Gistelinck, L, Dikeos, D, Dochnal, R, Fairchild, G, Fernández-Rivas, A, Herpertz-Dahlmann, B, Hervas, A, Konrad, K, Popma, A, Stadler, C, Freitag, CM, De Brito, SA & Lockwood, PL 2025, 'Conduct disorder is associated with heightened action initiation and reduced learning from punishment but not reward', Biological Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.03.005

Chapter

Su, Z & Lockwood, PL 2026, The Neuroeconomics of Social Influence and Contagion. in DV Smith, PL Lockwood & DS Fareri (eds), Neuroeconomics: Core Topics and Current Directions. 1 edn, Springer Nature, pp. 467-482. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/tgmj3_v1, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-02925-6_26

Foreword/postscript

Smith, DV, Lockwood, PL & Fareri, DS 2026, Foundations of Neuroeconomics: History and Methods. in DV Smith, PL Lockwood & DS Fareri (eds), Neuroeconomics: Core Topics and Current Directions. 1 edn, Springer, pp. 1-3. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-02925-6

Smith, DV, Lockwood, PL & Fareri, DS 2026, From Neural Data to Societal Impact: Applications of Neuroeconomics. in DV Smith, PL Lockwood & DS Fareri (eds), Neuroeconomics: Core Topics and Current Directions. 1 edn, Springer, pp. 629-631. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-02925-6

Smith, DV, Fareri, DS & Lockwood, PL 2026, Individual Differences in Neuroeconomics: Age, Sex and Gender, and Clinical Variation. in DV Smith, PL Lockwood & DS Fareri (eds), Neuroeconomics: Core Topics and Current Directions. 1 edn, Springer, pp. 503-506. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-02925-6

Fareri, DS, Smith, DV & Lockwood, PL 2026, Modulators of Decision-Making: Emotion and Social Context. in DV Smith, PL Lockwood & DS Fareri (eds), Neuroeconomics: Core Topics and Current Directions. 1 edn, Springer, pp. 329-332. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-02925-6

Lockwood, PL, Smith, DV & Fareri, DS 2026, Social Preferences and Social Decision-Making. in DV Smith, PL Lockwood & DS Fareri (eds), Neuroeconomics: Core Topics and Current Directions. 1 edn, Springer, pp. 423-425. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-02925-6

Fareri, DS, Lockwood, PL & Smith, DV 2026, Temporal Discounting, Effort-Based Choice, and Self-Control. in DV Smith, PL Lockwood & DS Fareri (eds), Neuroeconomics: Core Topics and Current Directions. 1 edn, Springer, pp. 235-237. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-02925-6

Lockwood, PL, Fareri, DS & Smith, DV 2026, Valuation, Learning, Risk, and Uncertainty. in DV Smith, PL Lockwood & DS Fareri (eds), Neuroeconomics: Core Topics and Current Directions. 1 edn, Springer, pp. 121-123. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-02925-6

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