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Helen Barron

UKRI Future Leaders Fellow

Helen studied Natural Sciences at University of Cambridge, before completing her PhD at University College London (UCL). During her PhD, Helen used Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to investigate mechanisms for memory and decision making in the human brain, with supervision from Prof. Tim Behrens and Prof. Ray Dolan at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging. In 2015, Helen was awarded a Junior Research Fellowship at the University of Oxford (Merton College). During this fellowship, and as a postdoctoral researcher, Helen worked with Prof. David Dupret at the MRC Brain Network Dynamics Unit (BNDU) where she developed a cross-species approach to gain new insights into the neural mechanisms that support inferential reasoning. In 2022, Helen was awarded a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship to set up her own research group at the BNDU and the Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, University of Oxford. Helen’s group investigates how cells and circuits in the brain work together to perform computations that support memory in both health and disease.

Key Research Areas
  • Defining hippocampal-neocortical interactions during learning, memory and sleep
  • Characterising the role of inhibitory interneurons in separating and integrating memories
  • How are memories used to support decision making?
  • Modulating neuronal computations to introduce perturbations in memory
  • Relating pathophysiology of memory circuits to core symptoms reported in psychiatric disease
Research Techniques
  • Electrophysiology (multiunit)

  • Calcium imaging

  • Optogenetic manipulations

  • Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS)

  • Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

  • Non-invasive brain stimulation

  • Behavioural quantification

Direct Entry Research Degrees