Human behaviour is uniquely flexible. Our brains bring forth memories from moments to years ago, taking into account what matters in a given context, to guide our perception, choice, action, and learning. All of this happens in the flux of our ongoing interaction with the external environment and internal mindscape. In the lab, we are fascinated by this proactive and dynamic process of focus at the core of all cognition. We carry out many lines of research, but they share the broad aim of investigating the workings of mental focus and in understanding its role in psychological and brain disorders.

Theoretical perspectives: review chapters and papers best capture the broader themes and ideas of our research

• Nobre AC, van Ede F (2023) Attention in flux. Neuron, 111(7):971-86
• van Ede F, Nobre AC (2023) Turning attention inside out: how working memory serves behaviour. Annual Review of Psychology, 74:137-65
• Nobre AC, van Ede F (2020) Under the mind’s hood: what we have learned by watching the brain work. Journal of Neuroscience, 40(1):89–100
• Nobre AC (2020) Chapter 17: Cognitive neuroscience: principles and methods. In: J Geddes, N Andreason, G Goodwin (editors). New Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry, 3^rd Edition (pp. 154–169). Oxford: Oxford University Press
• Nobre AC, Stokes MG (2019) Premembering experience: a hierarchy of time-scales for proactive attention. Neuron 104(1):132–46
• Nobre AC (2018) Chapter 6: Attention. In: JT Wixted (editor-in-chief) & J Serences (volume editor). Stevens’ Handbook of Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Volume 2, Sensation, Perception, and Attention, 4th Edition (pp. 241–316) New York: John Wiley & Sons
• Nobre AC, van Ede F (2018) Anticipated moments: temporal structure of attention. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 19:34–48
• Nobre AC, Mesulam M-M (2014) Large-scale networks for attentional biases. In: AC Nobre & S Kastner (editors). The Oxford Handbook of Attention (pp. 105–151) Oxford: Oxford University Pres