I am interested in how learning results in brain adaptations at the level of individual neurons that results in large-scale changes in network activity.

I studied for my undergraduate (Psychology; 2009-2013) and MSc (Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience; 2012-2013) before undertaking my PhD in the lab of Eisuke Koya, all at the University of Sussex, Brighton. Here, I observed that learning about food and drug-associated cues causes dynamic alterations to the intrinsic and synaptic excitability of behaviourally relevant neurons using patch clamp electrophysiology.

In 2019 I joined the Adaptive Brain Lab to study how learning results in modulation of activity at the network level in humans. This will involve interrogating how visual learning can induce changes in brain network activity (using fMRI), and how this might be influenced by neurotransmitters, such as GABA (using Magnetic Resonance Imaging). We hope to link such findings with collaborators elucidating the neuronal and circuit alterations from similar learning procedures in rodents.

Outside of the lab I enjoy cycling and playing snooker (badly).