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Ashley Tyrer

@ashleytyrer.bsky.social

580 followers 220 following 67 posts

Postdoc at @the-ecg.bsky.social, researching noradrenaline and decision-making with a sprinkle of Dynamic Causal Modelling and Active Inference 🧠 Blog Team Lead, OHBM Communications Committee 🤓 📰 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ashley-Tyrer

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Ashley Tyrer @ashleytyrer.bsky.social · Mar 10

1/ We can measure interoception in many aspects, but can we actually manipulate it? I’m excited to share our new study, which shows that blockade of peripheral beta-adrenergic pathways improves cardiac and respiratory interoception in unique ways! 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Reposted by Ashley Tyrer

bioRxivpreprint @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social · 6d

Cortical Microstructural Variations Explain Individual Differences in Gamified Exploration-Exploitation Behaviours https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.08.681181v1

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Reposted by Ashley Tyrer

bioRxiv Neuroscience @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 6d

Cortical Microstructural Variations Explain Individual Differences in Gamified Exploration-Exploitation Behaviours https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.08.681181v1

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Reposted by Ashley Tyrer

Micah G. Allen @micahgallen.com · 6h

Check out our latest paper, a collaboration with @tobiasuhauser.bsky.social using gamified computational psychiatry measures to explore brain-behavioral correlates of decision making!

Ashley Tyrer @ashleytyrer.bsky.social · 7h

1/ To explore or to exploit? I’m excited to share my new preprint with @tobiasuhauser.bsky.social and @micahgallen.com, correlating variations in cortical microstructures with individual differences in exploration-exploitation behaviours, using a gamified task! 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Ashley Tyrer @ashleytyrer.bsky.social · 6h

Find previous studies by Magda and Tobias here:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
doi.org/10.7554/eLif...

Ashley Tyrer @ashleytyrer.bsky.social · 6h

Also for the support of our lab @the-ecg.bsky.social , @lundbeckfonden.bsky.social, @erc.europa.eu and CFIN @au.dk 🙏

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Ashley Tyrer @ashleytyrer.bsky.social · 6h

13/ I am hugely grateful to everyone on the Visceral Mind Project team for their help, and supervision from @micahgallen.com and @tobiasuhauser.bsky.social, without whom this project would not have been possible!

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Ashley Tyrer @ashleytyrer.bsky.social · 6h

12/ Interestingly, our analyses did not identify correlations in canonical dopaminergic midbrain regions 🤔 This could result from our rigorous regression pipeline with correction for multiple comparisons, which may lead to reduced sensitivity to subtler effects from smaller regions.

Ashley Tyrer @ashleytyrer.bsky.social · 6h

11/ Why does this matter? This research highlights potential for future work examining how cortical microstructures differ in individuals suffering from mental health conditions characterised by aberrant decision-making, such as ADHD or anxiety.

Ashley Tyrer @ashleytyrer.bsky.social · 6h

10/ Key takeaways 🔑 Our findings suggest that individual differences in decision-making and exploration behaviours may have distinct microstructural foundations in the brain! 🧠

Ashley Tyrer @ashleytyrer.bsky.social · 6h

9/ We also found negative correlations between markers of myeloarchitecture in the right postcentral gyrus & right superior parietal lobule, and value-free random exploration in short horizon trials - trials in which exploration is NOT beneficial!

Ashley Tyrer @ashleytyrer.bsky.social · 6h

8/ We found greater indices of cortical myelination in right superior frontal brain regions - previously linked to impulsivity - to be strongly associated with increased value-free random exploration in long horizon trials, i.e., trials in which exploration is beneficial! 🧠

Ashley Tyrer @ashleytyrer.bsky.social · 6h

7/ We then employed a TFCE-corrected, whole-brain multiple linear regression pipeline to examine how value-free random exploration relates to indices of brain microstructures (figure from Nikolova et al. 2025: www.jneurosci.org/content/45/3...).

Ashley Tyrer @ashleytyrer.bsky.social · 6h

6/ Participants also showed greater novelty exploration and greater uncertainty about a bandit’s mean value (prior variance), in long versus short horizon trials, further demonstrating that long horizon trials engendered robust value-free exploratory behaviours.

Ashley Tyrer @ashleytyrer.bsky.social · 7h

5/ In line with previous studies led by Magda Dubois and @tobiasuhauser.bsky.social, we found that participants increased their value-free random exploration in trials where exploration is beneficial (long horizon), compared with trials in which exploration is not beneficial (short horizon). 💡

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Ashley Tyrer @ashleytyrer.bsky.social · 7h

4/ We specifically focused on ‘value-free random exploration’: an exploration strategy which disregards all existing knowledge of the decision space, thus considering all available choices to be equally likely.

Ashley Tyrer @ashleytyrer.bsky.social · 7h

3/ To investigate this behaviour, we combined the gamified multi-armed bandit task, Maggie’s Farm, with computational modelling to extract subject-specific parameters of exploration behaviours from 122 healthy human volunteers 🍎

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Ashley Tyrer @ashleytyrer.bsky.social · 7h

2/ Throughout life, we face decision-making dilemmas such as the exploration-exploitation trade-off. One must choose either the highest-value option (exploitation), or an alternative, lesser-known option which may yield yet greater rewards but at the risk of disappointment (exploration). 💰

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Ashley Tyrer @ashleytyrer.bsky.social · 7h

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Reposted by Ashley Tyrer

Moby Dick @mobydickatsea.bsky.social · 2d

till you get to be Captain, the higher you rise the harder you toil

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Reposted by Ashley Tyrer

Moby Dick @mobydickatsea.bsky.social · 5d

The harpoon was hurled.

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Reposted by Ashley Tyrer

Sarang Dalal @sarangnemo.bsky.social · 7d

📈🧠 We're looking for brains! 🧠📈
Postdoc + PhD positions are available to help pioneer fetal MEG with optically pumped magnetometers, measuring prenatal responses to sound and light to understand how we start making sense of the world even before we're born. 🐣

Please get in touch to hear more!

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Reposted by Ashley Tyrer

Sahib Khalsa @skhalsa.bsky.social · 22d

Even after recovery, relapse is heartbreakingly common in anorexia nervosa. Could the answer lie in the gut’s hidden signals? 🧵

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Reposted by Ashley Tyrer

Leah Banellis @leahbanellis.bsky.social · 14d

Thank you to @psypost.bsky.social for featuring our @natmentalhealth.nature.com research on stomach–brain communication and worse mental health symptoms
www.psypost.org/scientists-d...
Was also shared on X but with weirdly more hair colour comments 🌈 than the science itself 😅:
x.com/OwenGregoria...

Scientists discover surprising link between gut-brain interactions and mental health

Every emotion has a physical side, but one organ has been curiously overlooked in brain-body research. Now, scientists are turning their attention to the stomach—and discovering signals that may chang...

www.psypost.org

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Reposted by Ashley Tyrer

Tahnée Engelen @tahnee-engelen.bsky.social · 26d

That’s a wrap! Thanks to the speakers @leahbanellis.bsky.social @tschreiner.bsky.social and Anke Karabanov and co-organiser @danlikesbrains.bsky.social for a great symposium 💪

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Reposted by Ashley Tyrer

Moby Dick @mobydickatsea.bsky.social · Sep 11

as if by magic

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