Rolls is a neuroscientist with research interests in computational neuroscience, including the operation of real neuronal networks in the brain involved in visual perception, memory, attention, and decision-making; functional neuroimaging of vision, taste, olfaction, feeding, the control of appetite, memory, and emotion; neurological disorders of emotion; psychiatric disorders including depression and schizophrenia; and the brain processes underlying consciousness.
These studies include investigations in patients, and are performed with the aim of contributing to understanding the human brain in health and disease, and of treating its disorders.
In 2008 Rolls moved to the University of Warwick, where he is Professor of Computational Neuroscience, to perform full-time research.
Rolls was also appointed as a Distinguished Chair Professor, at the Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence at Fudan University, Shanghai, in 2018.
Rolls was at the same time ranked as the 20th most cited neuroscientist in the world, and 3rd in the UK (composite indicator c for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Ioannidis et al. 2019).