A5016226230- Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research
- Behavioral and Psychological Studies
- Mental Health Research Topics
- Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders
- Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Functional Brain Connectivity Studies
- Neuroscience of respiration and sleep
- Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Bipolar Disorder and Treatment
- Parkinson's Disease Mechanisms and Treatments
- Stress Responses and Cortisol
- Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
- Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
- Neurological disorders and treatments
- Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Studies
- Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
- Biochemical effects in animals
- Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology
- Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Insect and Pesticide Research
- Neurological and metabolic disorders
- Diet, Metabolism, and Disease
- Pharmacological Receptor Mechanisms and Effects
University College London
2019-2025
Mental Health Research UK
2020-2022
Institute of Mental Health
2020
Motivational symptoms such as apathy and anhedonia are common in Parkinson's disease (PD), respond poorly to treatment, hypothesised share underlying neural mechanisms. Striatal dopaminergic dysfunction is considered central motivational PD but the association has never been examined longitudinally. We investigated whether progression of was associated with emergent PD.Longitudinal cohort study 412 newly diagnosed patients followed over 5 years part Progression Markers Initiative...
Abstract Over the past three decades, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has become crucial to study how cognitive processes are implemented in human brain. However, question of whether participants recruited into fMRI studies differ from other contexts received little no attention. This is particularly pertinent when effects fail generalize across contexts: for example, a behavioural effect discovered non-imaging context not replicating neuroimaging environment. Here, we tested...
Anhedonia, a core symptom of mood disorders such as depression, is marked by diminished pleasure and motivation for rewards. Traditional reinforcement learning (RL) tasks, like the 4-arm bandit (4AB), show limited sensitivity to reward-processing impairments associated with anhedonia. Here, we developed validated modified 3-arm (3AB) task designed reduce cognitive load while retaining reward punishment learning. Following this validation, 1,000 participants were pre-screened Snaith-Hamilton...
Abstract Willingness to exert effort for a given goal is dependent on the magnitude of potential rewards and costs an action. Such effort-based decision making essential component motivation, in which dopaminergic system plays key role. Depression Parkinson’s disease (PD) common, disabling has poor outcomes. Motivational symptoms such as apathy anhedonia, are prominent PD depression related loss. We hypothesised that dopamine-dependent disruption decision-making contributes PD. In present...
Background: Cannabidiol (CBD) is being investigated as a potential treatment for several medical indications, many of which are characterised by altered memory processing. However, the mechanisms underlying these effects unclear. Aims: Our primary aim was to investigate how CBD influences cerebral blood flow (CBF) in regions involved secondary determine if on CBF were associated with differences working and episodic task performance. Methods: We used randomised, crossover, double-blind...
Abstract Rationale There is growing interest in the therapeutic potential of cannabidiol (CBD) across a range psychiatric disorders. CBD has been found to reduce anxiety during experimentally induced stress anxious individuals and healthy controls. However, mechanisms underlying putative anxiolytic effects are unknown. Objectives We sought investigate behavioural neural single dose vs. placebo on emotion-related measures test cognitive-mechanistic models its anxiety. Methods conducted...
Cannabidiol (CBD) and Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) are the two major constituents of cannabis with contrasting mechanisms action. THC is psychoactive, addiction-promoting, psychotomimetic compound, while CBD may have opposite effects. The brain effects these drugs alone in combination poorly understood. In particular, striatum implicated pathophysiology several psychiatric disorders, but it unclear how influence striato-cortical connectivity.To examine THC, CBD, + on functional connectivity...
Although avoidance is a prevalent feature of anxiety-related psychopathology, differences in the measurement between humans and non-human animals hinder our progress its theoretical understanding treatment. To address this, we developed novel translational measure form an approach-avoidance reinforcement learning task, by adapting paradigm from animal literature to study same cognitive processes human participants. We used computational modelling probe putative mechanisms underlying...
Abstract Willingness to exert effort for a given goal is dependent on the magnitude of potential rewards and costs an action. Such effort-based decision making essential component motivation, in which dopaminergic system plays key role. Depression Parkinson’s disease (PD) common, disabling has poor outcomes. Motivational symptoms such as apathy anhedonia, are prominent PD depression related loss. We hypothesised that dopamine-dependent disruption decision-making contributes PD. In present...
Although avoidance is a prevalent feature of anxiety-related psychopathology, differences in the measurement between humans and non-human animals hinder our progress its theoretical understanding treatment. To address this, we developed novel translational measure form an approach-avoidance reinforcement learning task, by adapting paradigm from animal literature to study same cognitive processes human participants. We used computational modelling probe putative mechanisms underlying...
Background: Cannabidiol has potential therapeutic benefits for people with psychiatric disorders characterised by reward function impairment. There is existing evidence that cannabidiol may influence some aspects of processing. However, it unknown whether acutely affects brain underpinning anticipation and feedback. Hypotheses: We predicted would augment activity associated Methods: administered a single 600 mg oral dose matched placebo to 23 healthy participants in double-blind,...
Abstract Anxiety involves the anticipation of aversive outcomes and can impair neurocognitive processes, such as ability to recall faces encoded during anxious state. It is important precisely delineate determine replicability these effects using causal state anxiety inductions in general population. This study therefore aimed replicate prior research on distinct impacts threat-of-shock-induced encoding recognition stage emotional face processing, a large asymptomatic sample ( n = 92). We...
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are used for the treatment of several conditions including anxiety disorders, but basic neurobiology function remains unclear. The amygdala and prefrontal cortex strongly innervated by serotonergic projections have been suggested to play an important role in expression. However, behaviour SSRI-mediated neurobiological changes remain incompletely understood.
Summary Background Motivational symptoms such as apathy and anhedonia are common in Parkinson’s disease, respond poorly to treatment, have been hypothesised share underlying neural mechanisms. Striatal dopaminergic dysfunction is considered central motivational but the association has never examined longitudinally. We investigated whether progression of neurodegeneration was associated with emergent disease. Methods Longitudinal cohort study 412 newly diagnosed disease patients followed over...
Over the past three decades, functional MRI (fMRI) has become key to study how cognitive processes are implemented in human brain. However, question of whether participants recruited into fMRI studies differ from other contexts received little no attention. This is particularly pertinent when effects fail generalize across contexts: for example, a behavioural effect discovered non-imaging context not replicating neuroimaging environment. Here, we tested hypothesis, motivated by preliminary...
Abstract There is a growing focus on the computational aspects of psychiatric disorders in humans. This idea also gaining traction nonhuman animal studies. Commenting new comprehensive overview benefits applying this approach translational research by Neville et al. ( Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience 1–14, 2024), we discuss implications for model validity within framework. We argue that thinking computationally psychiatry calls change way evaluate models human processes,...
Although avoidance is a prevalent feature of anxiety-related psychopathology, differences in existing measures between humans and non-human animals impede progress its theoretical understanding treatment. To address this, we developed novel translational measure the form an approach-avoidance reinforcement learning task, by adapting paradigm from animal literature to study same cognitive processes human participants. We used computational modelling probe putative mechanisms underlying...
Although avoidance is a prevalent feature of anxiety-related psychopathology, differences in existing measures between humans and non-human animals impede progress its theoretical understanding treatment. To address this, we developed novel translational measure the form an approach-avoidance reinforcement learning task, by adapting paradigm from animal literature to study same cognitive processes human participants. We used computational modelling probe putative mechanisms underlying...
Abstract Cannabidiol (CBD) and Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) are two major constituents of cannabis with contrasting mechanisms action. THC is the psychoactive, addiction-promoting, psychotomimetic compound, while CBD may have somewhat opposite effects. The brain effects these drugs alone in combination poorly understood. In particular striatum implicated pathophysiology several psychiatric disorders, but it unclear how influence striato-cortical connectivity. Across placebo-controlled,...
Background There is growing interest in the therapeutic potential of cannabidiol (CBD) across a range psychiatric disorders. CBD has been found to reduce anxiety during experimentally-induced stress anxious individuals and healthy controls. However, mechanisms underlying putative anxiolytic effects are unknown. We therefore sought investigate behavioural neural single dose vs. placebo on emotion-related measures test cognitive-mechanistic models its anxiety. Methods conducted randomised,...