Our lab's goal is to discover how cognitive neuroscience can be translated into better treatment of mental health conditions.  We have a particular focus on brain-body interactions, such as how the gut, immune system, and metabolic system interact with the brain to create our sense of mental and physical health. Our work broadly falls into three streams:

1. Discovery Science -- Blue-sky research that helps us discover common 'transdiagnostic' mechanisms driving poor mental health - see our study in The American Journal of Psychiatry showing one common factor: disturbances in interoception, the sense of the internal condition of the body

2. Experimental Medicine -- Studies disrupting putative sources of worse mental health, or enhancing factors that support mental health using pharmacology, brain stimulation, and psychological interventions, to explore their causal relationship with mental health symptoms - see our study in Current Biology that found a role for gut state in disgust avoidance, and our study in Psychological Medicine exploring the computational mechanisms of psychological therapy

3. Translational Neuroscience -- Clinical trials to test neuroscience-based interventions, see our clinical trial combing brain stimulation and psychological therapy in Neuropsychopharmacology

We are currently funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC), Wellcome (Career Development Award and Mental Health Award), and the Isaac Newton Trust-Wellcome ISSF, and have previously been funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and AXA Research Fund.

See a full list of our publications here.

Take part in our experiments by contacting mentalhealthneuro [at ] gmail.com