A single idea organises my research. Behaviour is the expression of a strategy selected from a set, and internal state determines what that set contains. State here is informational, not merely chemical. It does not only shape which strategy is chosen. It reconfigures the space of strategies there are to choose from.
This reframes stress. Arousal and environmental challenge are usually treated as interference, noise laid over otherwise orderly behaviour. I treat them instead as control signals. This matters most in early development.
I came to this by working across very different systems, each a window onto the same architecture. Early fieldwork taught me to treat observation as the foundation of biology. I then studied how information moves through a decentralised group, and how an individual decides under uncertainty. That question, how an organism turns information into action, led me to decision-making and navigation, then to how the brain converts learning into goal-directed action, and finally to how the body regulates stress and how early life leaves a lasting mark on that regulation.
These are not separate topics but one problem in different bodies. Deciding under uncertainty, wayfinding, responding to challenge are instances of one thing, internal state setting the terms on which behaviour is generated. The view makes specific predictions. The same surroundings can be learned in different ways depending on internal state; environmental challenge can produce abrupt shifts in strategy rather than gradual change; and early conditions can recalibrate the link between state and behaviour in ways that do not fully reverse. Because the claim concerns an architecture rather than a species, the same structure should appear wherever neuromodulatory control meets adaptive behaviour under uncertainty.
The lab
Aim. We study how the actions of a behaving agent organise, moment to moment, into adaptive interactions with its environment. Our concern is the regulation of behaviour itself, independent of the species in which it appears.
Approach. We analyse spontaneous activity, responses to stimuli, and physiological state to understand how both random and goal-directed actions are regulated, and what they are for.
Join us. I value collaboration and am always glad to take on new projects. If you would like to join the lab, write to me at R.J.DeMarco@ljmu.ac.uk with a CV, or leave a message via Contact.
Full list of publications.