Welcome to the Psychiatry in Action lab
The lab is led by Dr Noham Wolpe, a clinical psychiatrist and researcher.
Our broad interest is in how mental health factors, such as mood and motivation, affect our everyday actions and movements.
Latest Updates
6:55:27 AMWe are excited to share our latest preprint on Age-related differences in emotion recognition! Check it out in our publications page
36 days agoWe are excited to share our latest preprint on Suboptimality in foraging! Check it out in our publications page
40 days agoWe are excited to share our latest preprint on Depression and Anxiety Symptom Networks! Check it out in our publications page
42 days agoWe are excited to share our latest preprint on Age-related differences in emotion recognition! Check it out in our publications page
36 days agoWe are excited to share our latest preprint on Suboptimality in foraging! Check it out in our publications page
40 days agoWe are excited to share our latest preprint on Depression and Anxiety Symptom Networks! Check it out in our publications page
42 days agoWe are looking for YOU
We are excited to announce that we are recruiting MSc and PhD students to join our program starting October 2025. We encourage you to reach out to learn more about our research opportunities and application process. For detailed information about available positions and supervision areas, please contact us Here. Early inquiries are welcome.

Recent work
Latest findings and publications
Explore our latest research findings and publications in cognitive neuroscience and psychiatry. From mental effort to motivation in mental health, discover our contributions to the field. View our research impact on Google Scholar.
Behavioral and brain differences in the processing of negative emotion in previously depressed individuals
Jakub’s paper was published in Emotion. We investigated the cognitive mechanisms behind attentional negativity bias in depression, linking slower processing of angry faces to increased activity in the insula, inferior frontal gyrus, and parietal cortex. The findings suggest this bias may persist beyond depression


Lab outing
Our lab team recently enjoyed a lab outdoor get-together and team building. The crew took a break from our research to strengthen connections outside the lab environment, sharing ideas and experiences in a more relaxed setting.
What is mental effort?
Mental effort is a widely used term but is poorly understood. Here's a talk I gave at CRCNS that summarises what we think about mental effort. Paper can be found in What Is Mental Effort: A Clinical Perspective or in our publication page.

Rethinking Schizophrenia Assessment
New research reveals schizophrenia's negative symptoms fall into two distinct categories: emotional expression and motivation deficits. While standard clinical tools effectively measure emotional expression, they inadequately capture motivation problems—critical for patient outcomes. This discovery may explain why many treatments have failed and highlights the need for more precise assessment methods in both research and clinical practice.
Link to full open-access manuscript