Royal Society (Industry) Fellow, School of Psychology, University of St Andrews

Her research, in collaboration with scientists at Organon Schering Plough Newhouse, UK, is concerned with how the brain organises responses and controls actions. The brain operates selectivity in many ways, but most obviously in the processing of inputs ("attention") and in the generation of responses, ensuring that choices are appropriate, timely and effective in achieving the desired outcomes or goals.

The ultimate research aim is to understand the nature of these executive processes and how and why they sometimes fail. This has relevance for understanding the impairments in thought associated with human psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, depression and Alzheimer’s disease.

She is particularly interested in making improvements in the efficiency, efficacy and validity of models used by the pharmaceutical industry in preclinical drug-development.