Contact information
miriam.klein-flugge@psy.ox.ac.uk
https://users.ox.ac.uk/~xpsy0747/
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5156-9833
Wellcome Centre For Integrative Neuroimaging (WIN), Tinsley Building, Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3TA
she/her
Websites
Miriam Klein-Flügge
PhD MSc
Associate Professor
- Wellcome Trust/Royal Society Henry Dale Fellow
- Principal Investigator: Motivation, Decision and Neurostimulation Group
- Fellow at Corpus Christi
Cognitive neuroscientist interested in decision making, ultrasound neuromodulation & mental health
Research
I am a Wellcome Trust/Royal Society Henry Dale fellow working jointly between the Departments of Psychiatry and Experimental Psychology, and the Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging (WIN). I am the Principal Investigator of the Motivation, Decision and Neurostimulation lab. In my group, we study processes related to emotion, motivation and decision-making. In particular, our work aims to understand how the human brain enables us to flexibly adjust our decisions to complex internal and external circumstances. For example, when decisions require physical effort (motivation), sequences of actions, or taking into account changes of context. We use brain imaging (fMRI, MEG, EEG), causal stimulation techniques (TMS, tDCS, ultrasound), computational modelling and behavioural/cognitive tasks to study these processes.
More recently, we have embarked on two new research themes: we have begun to examine the structure and function of subcortical regions located deep within the brain to help us understand their contribution to flexible decision-making. And we have started to study how decision computations are altered by mental illness because we do not currently understand which brain systems support changes in motivation and decision-making in these patients or precisely which aspects of decision-making are changed.
Please refer to my personal website and group website for more information (both links are shown on the left).
Education
I hold an undergraduate degree in Mathematics, Computer Science and Cognitive Science from the University of Osnabrück (Germany) and McGill University (Canada). I completed an MSc in Neuroscience at the University of Oxford and a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience at UCL under the supervision of Sven Bestmann. My postdoctoral work as a Henry Wellcome Fellow was in Matthew Rushworth's laboratory in Oxford.
Funding
- Wellcome Trust
- European Research Council - now converted to UKRI
- Medical Research Council
Public outreach
I enjoy outreach and in particular teaching children and young people about the brain. I have taken part in various outreach activities in museums and schools, including a recent live MRI school lesson which can be watched here: https://encounteredu.com/live-lessons/your-amazing-brain-live-experiment-160622
Recent publications
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Distinct roles of hippocampus and neocortex in symbolic compositional generalization
Preprint
Liang Z. et al, (2025)
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Causal necessity of human hippocampus for structure-based inference in learning
Preprint
Pan D. et al, (2025)
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Friend Request Accepted: Fundamental Features of Social Environments Determine Rate of Social Affiliation
Preprint
Garud S. et al, (2025)
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A distributed subcortical circuit linked to instrumental information-seeking about threat.
Journal article
Trier HA. et al, (2025), Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 122
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Nuclei-specific hypothalamus networks predict a dimensional marker of stress in humans.
Journal article
Jensen DEA. et al, (2024), Nat Commun, 15
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The importance of acoustic output measurement and monitoring for the replicability of transcranial ultrasonic stimulation studies
Journal article
Klein-Flügge MC. et al, (2024), Brain Stimulation, 17, 32 - 34
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The association of longitudinal diet and waist-to-hip ratio from midlife to old age with hippocampus connectivity and memory in old age: a cohort study.
Preprint
Jensen DE. et al, (2023)
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Action initiation and punishment learning differ from childhood to adolescence while reward learning remains stable.
Journal article
Pauli R. et al, (2023), Nat Commun, 14
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Three-layer model with absorption for conservative estimation of the maximum acoustic transmission coefficient through the human skull for transcranial ultrasound stimulation.
Journal article
Attali D. et al, (2023), Brain Stimul, 16, 48 - 55
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Relationship between nuclei-specific amygdala connectivity and mental health dimensions in humans.
Journal article
Klein-Flügge MC. et al, (2022), Nat Hum Behav
