Joni Wallis facts for kids

Joni Wallis is a scientist who studies the brain. She is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. She focuses on how our brains help us make choices.

Learning and Early Work

Joni Wallis studied Psychology and Neuroscience. She got her first degree from the University of Manchester in 1995. Later, she earned her PhD from the University of Cambridge. There, she worked in the lab of Angela C. Roberts.

What Joni Wallis Studies

After her PhD, Dr. Wallis moved to the United States. She joined the lab of Earl K. Miller. She studied the prefrontal cortex of the brain. This part of the brain helps us with "executive functions." These are skills like planning, solving problems, and reaching goals. She wanted to know how this brain area helps us make decisions.

Dr. Wallis's research looks at how the frontal cortex helps us set and reach goals. She studies this by looking at single neurons. Neurons are tiny brain cells.

How We Make Decisions

Making a decision means thinking about good and bad things. Dr. Wallis's team studies how our brains do this. They watch how single neurons act when we make choices.

They taught monkeys to make decisions. These choices involved effort or waiting for a reward. They found that single neurons in the prefrontal cortex reacted to the type of choice. This built on earlier work by Dr. Wallis. That work showed that individual neurons in this area think about many things. These include how likely a reward is. They also consider how big the reward is. And how much effort it will take to get it.

Her team also found where certain brain cells are located. Neurons that link sights or sounds to rewards are in the orbitofrontal cortex. Neurons that link actions to rewards are in the anterior cingulate cortex.

Brain Activity During Choices

Dr. Wallis's group also studies how decisions happen over time. They use special tools to watch brain activity. They looked at both humans and monkeys. Their findings matched a math model of how we choose. This connects brain science to how people make economic choices.

In another study, they watched neurons in the orbitofrontal cortex. They saw how these neurons acted when monkeys chose between two things. The neurons linked to each choice would fire back and forth. They would switch between the two options. Then, the brain would finally decide.

Why This Research Matters

Dr. Wallis's research gets help from the National Institute of Mental Health. Her goal is to understand how to treat mental illnesses better. She became interested in this field after meeting patients. These patients had damage to their orbitofrontal cortex. They had trouble making decisions. But other brain functions were fine.

Awards and Honors

• The Marian C. Diamond & Arnold B. Scheibel Fund in Neuroscience, 2020