I investigate the neural correlates and behavioural mechanisms that underpin how people apply physical effort to avoid unpleasant situations. I am also interested in computationally modelling biases and affective states that contribute to evaluations of effort cost, with the aim of better understanding the roles that differing cognitive mechanisms play in people’s perception of effort. I am supervised by Dr. Rebecca Todd and Dr. Alan Kingstone, and also collaborate with Dr. Kiran Soma and Dr. Tim Murphy.

I’m interested in the cognitive processes and neural representations underpinning how people learn to avoid unpleasant outcomes and approach pleasant ones, from the perspectives of behavioural tasks, neuroimaging, and computational modelling. Separately, I also collaborate on a variety of fMRI data analysis projects; develop statistical models of glucocortioids in mouse brain and immune tissues; and help develop computer vision methods for closed-loop mouse behavioural analysis and mesoscale calcium imaging of mouse cortex.

Ehlers, M. R., Kryklywy, J. H., Beukers, A. O., Moore, S. R., Forys, B. J., Anderson, A. K., & Todd, R. M. (2021).
Reactivation of hedonic but not sensory representations in human emotional learning. BioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.11.25.469891

Xiao, D., Forys, B. J., Vanni, M. P., & Murphy, T. H. (2021). MesoNet: automated scaling and segmentation of mouse mesoscale cortical maps using machine learning. Nature Communications, 12(1), 5992. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-26255-2

Hamden, J.E., Salehzadeh, M., Gray, K. M., Forys, B. J., & Soma, K. K. (2021). Isoflurane stress induces glucocorticoid production in mouse lymphoid organs. Journal of Endocrinology, 251(2), 137-148. https://doi.org/10.1530/JOE-21-0154

Hamden, J. E., Gray, K., Saledzadeh, M., Kachkovski, G. K., Forys, B. J., Ma, C., Austin, S., Soma, K. K. (2021). Steroid profiling of glucocorticoids in microdissected mouse brain across development. Developmental Neurobiology, 81(2), 189–206. https://doi.org/10.1002/dneu.22808

Forys, B. J., Xiao, D., Gupta, P., & Murphy, T. H. (2020). Real-time selective markerless tracking of forepaws of head-fixed mice using deep neural networks. eNeuro, 7(3). https://doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0096-20.2020

Forys, B., Xiao, D., Gupta, P., Boyd, J. D., & Murphy, T. H. (2018). Real-time markerless video tracking of bodyparts in mice using deep neural networks. BioRxiv, 482349. https://doi.org/10.1101/482349

• Canada Graduate Scholarship – Doctoral, NSERC (2022)
• Faculty of Arts Graduate Award, UBC (2021, deferred from 2020)
• Canada Graduate Scholarship – Master’s, NSERC (2020)
• NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award, NSERC/UBC (2020)
• Faculty of Arts Graduate Award, UBC (2020)
• Trek Excellence Scholarship for Continuing Students, UBC (2019)
• ARTA Scholarship, Alberta Retired Teachers’ Association (2019)
• Wesbrook Scholar, UBC (2019)
• HSBC Emerging Leader Scholarship, UBC (2019)
• Suedfeld Scholar Award, UBC Psi Chi (2019)
• PSYC 217 Poster Award, 1st Place, UBC Psychology (2018)
• Student Scholarship in Arts, UBC Faculty of Arts (2018)
• Trek Excellence Scholarship for Continuing Students, UBC (2017)
• Stephen Straker Arts One Prize, UBC Arts One Program (2017)
• University of BC Sopron Memorial Scholarship, UBC (2016)
• Dean’s List, UBC Faculty of Arts (2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20)