Professor
Ben Seymour
BSc MB ChB PhD MRCP FRSA
Wellcome Senior Clinical Fellow
Professor of Clinical Neuroscience

My lab addresses the computational and systems neuroscience of pain. This research is part theoretical: building realistic models of neuronal information processes to understand processes of pain perception and behaviour, and part experimental: testing these theories using a range of experimental methodologies, especially fMRI. My research aims to develop new technology-based therapies for treating pain in clinical populations.

I am a Wellcome Senior Clinical Fellow at Oxford University, working jointly at the Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging and the Oxford Institute for Biomedical Engineering; and a visiting researcher at ATR labs (Kyoto). I am a Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute with an interest in safe AI control systems. I am also an honorary consultant neurologist at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust with an interest in behavioural homeostasis and sleep, pain and fatigue neurology.

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Pain and Aversive Learning

Short-term variability of chronic musculoskeletal pain
Zheng X,  Rajwal S,  Ashworth C,  Ho SYS,  Seymour B,  Shenker N,  Mancini F,  et al. (2025)
Balancing safety and efficiency in human decision making
Mahajan P,  Tong S,  Lee SW,  Seymour B,  et al. (2024)
Enhanced behavioural and neural sensitivity to punishments in chronic pain and fatigue
Mancini F,  Mahajan P,  Guttesen A,  Onysk J,  Scholtes I,  Shenker N,  Lee M,  Seymour B,  et al. (2024)
Neurofeedback modulation of insula activity via MEG-based brain-machine interface: A double-blind randomized controlled crossover trial
Yanagisawa T,  Wang Y,  Fukuma R,  Seymour B,  Yang H,  Kishima H,  et al. (2024)
Statistical learning shapes pain perception and prediction independently of external cues.
Onysk J,  Gregory N,  Whitefield M,  Jain M,  Turner G,  Seymour B,  Mancini F,  et al. (2024)
Balancing safety and efficiency in human decision making
Mahajan P,  Tong S,  Lee SW,  Seymour B,  et al. (2024)
Balancing safety and efficiency in human decision making
Mahajan P,  Tong S,  Lee SW,  Seymour B,  et al. (2024)
How the magnitude and precision of pain predictions shape pain experiences.
Derksen SMJC,  Konttinen M,  Myronenko A,  Seymour B,  Peerdeman KJ,  et al. (2024)
Enhanced behavioural and neural sensitivity to punishments in chronic pain and fatigue.
Mancini F,  Mahajan P,  Guttesen AÁV,  Onysk J,  Scholtes I,  Shenker N,  Lee M,  Seymour B,  et al. (2024)
Evidence for dopaminergic involvement in endogenous modulation of pain relief.
Desch S,  Schweinhardt P,  Seymour B,  Flor H,  Becker S,  et al. (2023)