University of Cambridge
Department of Experimental Psychology
Cambridge CB2 1TN
United Kingdom
To ensure that the Cambridge input to Work packages 1 and 2 are completed on time.
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Prof. Dr. Trevor Robbins Phone: +44 (0) 1223 33551 Fax: +44 (0) 1223 333564  Contact |
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Dr. Tanya Izzard: Administrator, BCNI. Point of contact for budgetary or personnel issues |
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Dr. J. W. Dalley: Point of contact for Workpackage 1 "Behavioural analysis of animal models" |
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Dr. M. Buhler: Point of contact for Workpackage 2 "Behavioural tasks in humans" |
The history of the Behavioural and Clinical Neurosciences Institute
The Behavioural and Clinical Neurosciences Institute (BCNI) links clinical research at the level of functional neural systems to basic work on the brain with a common theme of different neuroimaging modalities and neuropsychopharmacology. The imaging modalities employed will include functional neuroimaging (PET & fMRI), single unit recording, in vivo neurochemistry, telemetry, and, eventually, gene expression. The Institute integrates and co-ordinates basic work carried out in the School of Biological Sciences, University of Cambridge, with research in the programmes of the MRC Unit for Cognition and Brain Sciences, as well as the Clinical School (Depts. of Psychiatry, the Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre and the Centre for Brain Repair). The main objectives are to identify neural systems with defined cognitive or behavioural functions that underlie different forms of cognitive dysfunction and psychopathology. This would enable more accurate definitions of phenotype, hence refining diagnosis and potentially motivating novel therapeutic strategies and their assessment.
The mission of the Institute is to bring together the results of basic and clinical research, to try to understand the functions of defined brain systems and networks, and investigate how they malfunction in neuropsychiatric or neurological disorders including acute brain injury, Parkinson's and Huntington's disease, addiction, dementia, depression, schizophrenia, autism, and attention deficit disorder.
The Institute has four main research themes which are conceptually inter-related:
- Understanding the cognitive and executive functions of the prefrontal cortex, and its interactions with structures such as the posterior neocortex and hippocampus, amygdale and striatum
- Understanding the modulatory roles on forebrain systems of the midbrain dopamine and serotonin systems, with applications to the treatment of drug addiction, schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease, obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention deficit disorder and acute brain injury
- Defining the contributions of chemically-defined systems of the reticular core (such as acetylcholine, 5-HT, and noradrenaline) to mechanisms of arousal, stress, and attention relevant to clinical syndromes from coma to anxiety
- Modelling cognitive and mnemonic features of dementia or brain damage and neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s diseases and stroke
Summary of experience relevant to IMAGEN
Translational research is a major strength of the BCNI, with several strong programmes in addiction.
T W Robbins Brief Biography: Trevor Robbins was appointed in 1997 as the Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge. He was elected to the Chair of Expt. Psychology (and Head of Department) at Cambridge from October 2002. He is also Director of the newly-established Cambridge MRC Centre in Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience, the main objective of which is to inter-relate basic and clinical research in Psychiatry and Neurology for such conditions as Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, and Alzheimer’s diseases, frontal lobe injury, schizophrenia, depression, drug addiction and developmental syndromes such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society and the Academy of Medical Sciences. He has been President of the European Behavioural Pharmacology Society (1992-1994) and he won that Society’s inaugural Distinguished Scientist Award in 2001. He was also President of the British Association of Psychopharmacology from 1996 to 1997. He has edited the journal Psychopharmacology since 1980 and joined the editorial board of Science in Jan. 2003. He has been a member of the Medical Research Council (UK) and chaired the Neuroscience and Mental Health Board from 1995 until 1999. He has been included on a list of the 100 most cited neuroscientists by ISI. He has published nearly five hundred full papers in scientific journals and has co-edited three books (Psychology for Medicine: The Prefrontal Cortex; Executive and Cognitive Function, and Disorders of Brain and Mind).
Trevor W. Robbins' research interests span the areas of cognitive neuroscience, behavioural neuroscience and psychopharmacology. His main work focuses on the functions of the frontal lobes of the brain and their connections with other regions, including the so-called brain reward systems which have been discovered in both animals and humans. These brain systems are relevant to such psychiatric and neurological disorders as Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease, dementia, schizophrenia, depression, drug addiction, obsessive-compulsive disorder and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, as well as frontal lobe injury. He uses a variety of methods for studying these systems, including sophisticated psychological paradigms for investigating cognitive functions such as planning, decision-making and self-control (impulsivity) in both normal subjects and patients; these include the computerised CANTAB battery, which he co-invented. He also employs functional brain imaging using brain scanners that operate via magnetic resonance imaging or positron emission tomography (PET) to determine where in the human brain various cognitive operations are carried out. He is also interested in establishing how drugs work to produce changes in brain chemistry, and how these affect behaviour. Two particular current interests are characterising beneficial effects of drugs on cognition, as may occur with ‘cognitive enhancing’ drugs used clinically and deleterious effects of drugs of abuse, such as cocaine and amphetamine, which may lead to possible long-term intellectual impairment.
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