Professor of Neuroscience

Executive Director at BRIC

UKRI Future Leader Fellow 

ARIA R&D creator

Personal webpage

Bio: My research focuses on the neurobiology of decision-making and learning, both in healthy adults and in patients with psychiatric disorders. After working as a biomedical engineer, developing brain-related clinical devises, I pursued an academic career in computational neuroscience at the universities of Glasgow and Oxford. My previous research focused on the proof of principle that transcranial ultrasound neuromodulation can safely and transiently change neural activity in precise parts of the brain, particularly deep regions of the brain, repsonsible for core cognitive and motivational processes. I am now working towards bringing this technology forward and apply it to mental health challenges. 

A few videos to introduce Ultrasound Neuromodulation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsuqRldCspU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZMM9qByvYY

Grant Reviewer

Agence National de Recherche ([ANR], rapporteure et lecteure), European Research Council; UK Research Council (BBSRC, MRC, ESRC), Wellcome Trust, Federation for Focused Ultrasound

Editorial and Review Boards

Current Opinion in Behavioral Science; Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

Leadership & Advisory Boards

Ad-hoc Reviewer

Nature Neuroscience; Nature Communications; PNAS; Nature Human Behaviour; Nature Metabolism; Current Biology; Psychological Science; Molecular Psychiatry; Biological Psychiatry; Journal of Neuroscience; Cerebral Cortex; NeuroImage; Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience; Cognition; Psychological Medicine; Journal of Experimental Social Psychology; Neuropsychopharmacology; Social, Cognitive, & Affective Neuroscience; Current Opinion in Behavioral Science; Journal of Experimental Psychology; Science Advances, Scientific Reports, Neuron, Brain Stimulation, Journal of neuroscience, Current Biology; Iscience; Frontiers; IEEE

Post-Doctoral SUPERVISION

Dr Elena Brunet, University of Plymouth, UK, 2025 – Present

Dr Dylan Curtis, University of Plymouth, UK, 2025 – Present

Dr Sophie Clarke, University of Plymouth, UK, 2024 – Present

Dr Suraya Dunford, University of Plymouth, UK, 2023 – Present

Dr Siti Yaakub, University of Plymouth, UK, 2020 – 2023

PhD SUPERVISION as DoS and co-S (6 completed, 6 currents)

Bethan Barrett, PhD in Neuroscience, University of Plymouth, UK, 2024 – Present

Eleonora Carpino, PhD in Neuroscience, University of Plymouth, UK, 2023 – Present

Niamh Cameron, PhD in Neuroscience, University of Plymouth, UK, 2023 – Present

Rimsha Mahrukh, PhD in Neuroscience, University of Plymouth, UK, 2023 – Present

Mathilde Lojkiewiez, PhD in Neuroscience, University of Plymouth, UK, 2022 – Present

Nomiki Koutsoumpari, PhD in Neuroscience, University of Plymouth, UK, 2022 – Present

Timothy Palmer, PhD in Neuroscience, University of Plymouth, UK, 2021 – 2025 - Now postdoc at the CNRS, Lyon, France

Kenza Kadri, PhD in Psychology, University of Plymouth, UK, 2020 (VIVA 2023) - Now postdoc at the Max Plank Institute, Germany

Mica Komarnyckyj, PhD in Psychology, University of Huddersfield, UK, 2018 – 2022 (VIVA 2022) – Now postdoc at the University of Manchester

Rory Baxter, PhD in Psychology, University of Plymouth, UK, 2018 – 2022 (VIVA 2022)

Eleonora Parrotta, PhD in Psychology, University of Aberdeen, UK, 2018 – 2022 (VIVA 2022)

Nadescha Trudel, PhD in Psychology, University of Oxford, UK, 2018 – 2021 (VIVA 2021) – Now postdoc at Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing, London

Davide Folloni, PhD in Psychology, University of Oxford, UK, 2018 – 2021 (VIVA 2021) - Now postdoc at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; USA; Science and PINS prize for Neuromodulation, followed by a Prize Essay in the journal Science (on co-authored papers).

MPhil EXAMINER

Sixun Hou, University of Cambridge - VIVA passed November 2025

PhD EXAMINER

Maria Miscouridou, PhD at UCL, 2022 – VIVA passed in December 2025

Tom Aubier, PhD at the LabTAU, 2021 – VIVA passed in November 2025

Benjamin Kop, PhD at the Donders Institute, 2021 – VIVA passed in September 2025

Daniel Graham, PhD at the university of Plymouth – VIVA passed in 2025

Lisa Spierling, PhD at Oxford, 2022 – VIVA passed in 2025

Benjamen Connell, PhD at Bristol, 2020 – VIVA passed in 2024

Kitty Ban, PhD at Glasgow, Glasgow, 2021 – VIVA passed in 2024

Joshua Bolam, PhD at Leeds, Leeds, 2021 – VIVA passed in 2023

Nicholar Clairis, PhD at the Sorbonne University, Paris, France, 2018 – VIVA passed in 2022

Paul Knytl, PhD at the University of Surrey, School of Psychology, UK, 2018 - VIVA passed in 2021

LECTURING

Each course includes lectures and workshops/tutorials. In the methodological courses, I teach on a range of topics, including regions and connectivity brain analyses, model-based fMRI analyses, Bayesian model comparison and behavioural models of reinforcement learning

MA in Human Neuroscience (three modules) – Physics of Neuroimaging (module leader 2022) – Fundamental in spatial and temporal neural signals – fMRI tools and analyses, Plymouth, 2020 – present

MA in Psychology (two modules) – Issues in Cognitive and Brain Science – The neural basis of decisions, Plymouth, 2018 – 2022

UG in Psychology (two modules) – From Neurons to Behaviours – Introduction to cognitive neuroscience, Plymouth, 2018 – 2022

UNIQ (summer school) - Dopamine and Learning, University of Oxford, Summer 2017

MA in Cognitive Sciences - Reinforcement Learning and Value-Based Decision, Trento, Italy, 2012

Operating Centre, Central Air Navigation Systems, Cognitive Properties of Human Factors and Error Models in Engineering, Bordeaux, France, June 2007

MA in Psychotherapy - Mental Imagery, Neurobiology, Stress, Institute of Hydrotherapy, France, 2006

UG Sports Management - Mental Imagery for Cognitive Science, Bordeaux, France, 2005

TUTORING

Dissertation Project, University of Plymouth, 2018 - present

Saint Peter College, University of Oxford, Hilary term 2018

Sarah Lawrence Programme, Wadham College, University of Oxford, Michaelmas Term 2017

UNIQ summer school, University of Oxford, July 2017

Critical review, University of Glasgow, first semester 2015, 2016

Dissertation Project, University of Glasgow, second semester 2015, 2016