Dr Adam Linson

I am a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Computing & Communications at the Open University (UK). I study how experiential and evolutionary processes affect agent-environment interaction from a neurobiological perspective. My research pursues mechanistic insight into connected cognitive, behavioural and phenomenological phenomena that arise in distinctive ways in psychiatry, life science and the arts. To investigate these phenomena, I use theoretical modelling (formal decision theory, mathematical model-based simulations, systems approaches) and empirical studies. From a philosophy of science perspective, my research attends to how history and values shape scientific models and measures of cognition and behaviour, especially in biomedical and policy interventions related to mental health.

I am Co-Director of the Innogen Institute (based jointly at the Open University and the University of Edinburgh), which connects science, technology and innovation studies with policymaking. I was previously a Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford, the UCL Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, and the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research (KLI, Austria); an Anniversary Fellow in Computing and Philosophy at the University of Stirling; and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Edinburgh Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities.

I contribute to a range of interdisciplinary research projects: I am a Cooperation Partner on HearingTogether, combining auditory and social neuroscience with social science (PI: Sebastian Schnettler, U Oldenburg); a Senior Researcher on Art and Inequality in the Shadow of the Black Death c.1275-1525, combining spatial digital humanities with art history, history and economics (PI: Samuel Cohn, U Glasgow); and I was a Co-Investigator on Puzzled, combining learning science, computer vision and HCI with philosophy of education (PI: Andrea English, U Edinburgh).

Apart from academic research, I perform and compose music across various contexts. My main instrument is the double bass, and current musical collaborations typically involve improvisation and digital media. In 2021, I was commissioned to compose a new work, partnering with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and long-time collaborator Matthew Wright, that premiered live on BBC Radio 3. I continue to perform internationally and can be heard on live and studio recordings.

Research themes / supervision areas

A. how experience-dependent plasticity affects neurocognitive processes (especially through trauma or skill acquisition)

B. how species and habitats relate in the evolution of embodied neurocognitive and sensorimotor morphologies

C. how the sensorimotor, mental and material aspects of creative practice and reception interact (especially in musical improvisation and visual art)

Current PhD students

• Anna Jędraszkiewicz (University of Warsaw) [theme A]

• Nikos Tzagkarakis [theme B]

• Andrea Bolzoni [theme C]

Accepting new PhD students: yes

Selected publications

A. Psychiatry

Linson, A., Anderson, H., Markham, S., Friston, K., & Moutoussis, M. (2025). Neurocomputational impairments in disambiguation of context as a key determinant of post-traumatic psychopathology. bioRxiv, 2025-07, doi:10.1101/2025.07.07.663473

Linson, A., Parr, T., & Friston, K. (2020). Active inference, stressors, and psychological trauma: A neuroethological model of (mal)adaptive explore-exploit dynamics in ecological context. Behavioural brain research, 380, 112421, doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2019.112421

Linson, A., & Friston, K. (2019). Reframing PTSD for computational psychiatry with the active inference framework. Cognitive neuropsychiatry, 24(5), 347-368, doi:10.1080/13546805.2019.1665994

B. Cognitive Biology / Cognitive Ecology

Linson, A., Beauchamp, G., & Barve, S. (2025, in review). Attention in anti-predator vigilance: Neurocognitive modelling and behavioural evidence.

Linson, A., & Calvo, P. (2020). Zoocentrism in the weeds? Cultivating plant models for cognitive yield. Biology & Philosophy, 35(5), 49, doi:10.1007/s10539-020-09766-y

Linson, A., Clark, A., Ramamoorthy, S., & Friston, K. (2018). The active inference approach to ecological perception: General information dynamics for natural and artificial embodied cognition. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 5(21), doi:10.3389/frobt.2018.00021

C. Music Cognition / Music Psychology

Linson, A., Schulkin, J., & Clark, A. (2025). The fast and the curious: Improvisation as action-oriented abduction. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, doi: 10.1177/02762366251365906.

Linson, A., & Clarke, E.F. (2017). Distributed cognition, ecological theory and group improvisation. In: Clarke, E.F. & Doffman, M. (eds.), Distributed Creativity: Collaboration and Improvisation in Contemporary Music, pp. 52-69, doi: 10.1093/oso/9780199355914.003.0004

Linson, A., Dobbyn, C., Lewis, G.E., & Laney, R. (2015). A subsumption agent for collaborative free improvisation. Computer Music Journal, 39(4), 96-115, doi:10.1162/COMJ_a_00323