CNH Roundtable Talk by Dr Claire O'Callaghan

Speaker Bio: Claire is a senior research fellow at the University of Sydney, working across cognitive and clinical neuroscience. She spent some time at the University of Cambridge for a post doc, before returning to Sydney where she leads a group slowly trying (sometimes successfully) to do interdisciplinary neuroscience.

Abstract: Single dose drug studies provide a powerful framework for understanding neuromodulatory systems, and they offer one of the rare opportunities for a causal manipulation in humans. In conditions like Parkinson’s disease – which undergo profound changes in neuromodulatory function – these studies can provide important clinical insights, as well as being a test bed for current normative neuroscience theories. I will cover some of our recent findings using the noradrenergic reuptake inhibitor, atomoxetine, in Parkinson’s disease. As well as some of our ongoing projects, which together help get at noradrenaline’s role in complex adaptive behaviour.