Alex is a Lecturer in Mental Health in the Department of Psychology at the University of York. She was previously a postdoctoral researcher in the Neuroscience and Mental Health Group at University College London, mentored by Professor Oliver Robinson, where she used computational modelling and neuroimaging to understand the mechanisms underlying anxiety. She completed her DPhil in Psychiatry at the University of Oxford, focusing on eating disorders and compulsivity, and has an MSc in Neuroscience and a BA in Psychology and Philosophy. She is interested in exploring cognition (such as learning and decision-making) and how it may differ in those who experience mental illness. Her interests include eating disorders, anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, computational psychiatry, intolerance of uncertainty, compulsivity, catastrophising, and cognitive neuroscience
Millie Lowther, Isabel Luetkenherm, Carlos Mena and Alexandra Pike summarise a recent fMRI meta-analysis, which finds that activation in brain circuits related to salience, interoception and emotional processing were found to predict a positive response to CBT in anxiety disorders.
Alex Pike and Jonathan Roiser appraise and summarise a recently study in the Brain Stimulation journal, which looks at the long-term efficacy and quality of life of deep brain stimulation for severe depression.
Alexandra Pike, Alexis An Yee Low and Jonathan Roiser critically appraise a recent n-of-1 study on ‘brain pacemakers for depression’, which received extensive press coverage earlier this month. The case study looks at deep brain stimulation (closed-loop neuromodulation) in an individual with treatment-resistant depression.
