Barbara Jacquelyn Sahakian, Christelle Langley & Deniz Vatansever

Professor Barbara J Sahakian is based at the University of Cambridge Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute. Sahakian is also an Honorary Clinical Psychologist at Addenbrooke’s Hospital and a Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge. She is a Fellow of the British Academy and the Academy of Medical Sciences. She was a Member of the International Expert Jury for the 2017 Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung Prize. She is a Past President of the British Association for Psychopharmacology and of the International Neuroethics Society. Sahakian has an international reputation in the fields of psychopharmacology, neuropsychology, neuropsychiatry, neuroimaging and neuroethics. She is best known for her work on problems of cognition and motivation in brain injury, ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ cognitive deficits in depression and early detection and early treatment with cholinesterase inhibitors in Alzheimer’s disease. She has over 475 publications in high impact scientific journals. The ISI Web of Science database credits her with a Hirsch (h) index of 130 and Google Scholar h-index of 143. Sahakian co-invented the neuropsychological CANTAB and EMOTICOM tests (www.cambridgecognition.com) and the University of Cambridge/PEAK Advanced Training Programme and the Wizard Apprentice Memory Game (www.peak.net) . Sahakian has contributed to Neuroscience and Mental Health Policy, including the UK Government Foresight Project on Mental Capital and Wellbeing (Beddington et al., 2008, Nature), the Strategy for Mental Health for the Medical Research Council (Sahakian et al., 2010, The Lancet) and the Grand Challenges in Global Mental Health (Collins et al., 2011, Nature). She was a member of the Institute of Medicine Planning Committee (USA) on Enabling Discovery, Development, and Translation of Treatments for Cognitive Dysfunction in Depression. She is on the Committee for the Strategy for Neuroscience and Mental Health for the Department of Health. In March 2017, she participated in the Global Council on Brain Health meeting in Washington, DC. She has spoken at the World Economic Forum, Davos, 2014 and is a member of the WEF on the Future of Neurotechnologies and Brain Science. She is also on the Clinical Advisory Board of the Human Brain Project. She is a member of the Wellcome Trust Science Innovation Translation Programme Advisory Group and the Wellcome’s Innovator Awards Advisory Group. She is a member of the Irish Research Council Laureate Awards Committee. Dr Christelle Langley is a Cognitive Neuroscientist, she received her PhD from the University of Bristol in 2018. Her PhD focused on understanding the relationship between fatigue and cognition in Multiple Sclerosis, with particular emphasis on the neural mechanisms. She joined the University of Cambridge Department of Psychiatry in Professor Barbara J Sahakian’s lab in early 2019. In collaboration with UCL she has been examining cognitive impairment in young premanifest Huntington’s Disease patients and with the University of Copenhagen is examining the role of serotonin in cognition. My research seeks to determine how cognitive function arises from the topographical organization and complex dynamics in the brain. My integrative, interdisciplinary approach combines behavioural paradigms with state-of-the-art multimodal brain imaging (structural/functional MRI, PET and EEG) and computational neuroimaging approaches using mathematical models, network science and information theory to investigate functional organisation in the human brain. More recent research directions include: attempting to bridge micro- and macroscopic levels in neuroscience by investigating associations between brain network connectivity and gene expression; studying the influence of brainstem neurotransmitter/neuromodulator systems on cortical/subcortical networks and the use of deep graph convolutional neural networks to identify patients with disorders of consciousness with covert cognitive capacity. After previous work in neurotransmitter and neuromodulator systems from micro-, meso- and macroscopic angles, Lennart is currently working with multimodal neuroimaging approaches to develop a framework to understand how neurotransmitter and neuromodulator nuclei from the brainstem change their relationship with one another, and the rest of the brain – in altered states of consciousness (such as anaesthesia, disorders of consciousness etc) and various pathologies. By combining fMRI, MRS, DTI and other imaging techniques, he is characterising what prognostic, diagnostic and treatment-informing value these brainstem areas, their connectivity, and structural integrity may hold for disorders that entail arousal or awareness disruptions. He is interested to enter clinical practice after finishing his PhD.