The Angharad Dodds John Fellowship

The Angharad Dodds John Fellowship in Mental Health and Neuropsychiatry

The Angharad Dodds John Fund was generously established in 2012 by Robert John 1968 and Philippa Dodds John. The initial endowed funds support a Fellowship in Mental Health and Neuropsychiatry and, since 2016, subsequent gifts have supported annual bursaries to graduate students in the same discipline.

The Angharad Dodds John Fellowship and Studentships

“We are delighted to be able to advance the work of Professor Trevor Robbins and Professor Zoe Kourtzi and their team, through support to the Angharad Dodds John Fellowship and Bursaries in Mental Health and Neuropsychiatry. Angharad was the second of our five children who, sadly, had a short life dying in 1980 some 6 months before her third birthday.

Although born with many challenges, she was a Downs baby with significant heart and digestion problems, she contributed significantly to our family and to us. It is fitting therefore that she, albeit indirectly, can make her contribution to the future as her four brothers are able to do through their own endeavours.”

Robert and Philippa John

The Angharad Dodds John Fellowship

Professor Trevor Robbins, whose research focuses on psychopharmacology, was the first Angharad Dodds John Fellow. His particular interest lies in the cognitive functions of the frontal lobes of the brain, in understanding the neural basis of motivation and reward, in the neuropsychological basis of drug addiction and obsessive-compulsive disorder, and in the treatment of neurocognitive disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, schizophrenia and attention deficit disorder with ‘cognitive enhancing’ drugs. Professor Robbins is now an Emeritus Fellow though his research continues as University Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience.

Professor Zoe Kourtzi now holds the Angharad Dodds John Fellowship. Professor Kourtzi is a cognitive neuroscientist, specialising in lifelong learning and brain plasticity. Her work aims to understand the role of learning and experience in enabling humans of all ages to translate sensory experience into complex decisions and adaptive behaviours. She is University Professor of Experimental Psychology and a Fellow of and Cambridge lead for the Alan Turing Institute.

The Angharad Dodds John Bursaries in Mental Health and Neuropsychiatry.

The Angharad Dodds John Bursaries support a fourth year of research by graduate students at a critical juncture in their research but when typically PhD funding runs out. The Bursaries allow candidates to make significant strides in their work by seeking publication of papers in high profile journals; completing additional experiments; publicising findings and securing the crucial first research fellowship.

Beneficiaries of the Angharad Dodds John Bursaries

2016-17 Matilde Vaghi

2017-18 Benjamin Philips

2018-19 Joost Haarsma

2019-20 Jonathan Kanen

2020-21 Lisa Duan

2021-22 Marjan Biria / Ana Maria Pereira Frota Lisboa de Souza / Tsen Vei Lim

2022-23 Livia Wilod Versprille

2023-24 Máiréad Healy

Matilde M. Vaghi 2016-2017

Matilde gained her PhD at the University of Cambridge in 2016 under the supervision of Trevor Robbins, focusing on the cognitive and neural underpinnings of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

“While being supported by the Angharad Dodds John Bursary in Mental Health and Neuropsychiatry I found that confidence and action can become uncoupled in OCD, whereby patients seem to purse actions even when they believe it is not necessary to do so. This insight informed our understanding of OCD by suggesting that, contrary to what prevailing theories suggest, compulsive behaviours (ie actions excessively repeated) do not stem from inaccurate beliefs. This work has been eminently published as listed below.

I would like to express deep gratitude to the Dodds John family, whose generosity supports research aimed at reaching a better understanding of debilitating neuropsychiatric disorders.”

Following her bursary period Mathilde moved to the Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research. Here, Matilde worked on computational approaches to understand psychiatry with Professors Robb Rutledge and Ray Dolan, before being awarded a Human Frontier Science Program Fellowship and a NARSAD Young Investigator Grant to pursue her post-doctoral career at Stanford University with Professor Russ Poldrack.

Matilde returned to the UK where she was appointed Assistant Professor at the University of East Anglia in 2022 and as Associate Professor at BIrkbeck College, University of London in 2023.

Publications supported by the award:

Vaghi MM*, Luyckx F*, Sule A, Fineberg NA, Robbins TW, De Martino B (2017) Compulsivity reveals a novel dissociation between action and confidence. Neuron, 96:348-354.
Vaghi MM, Cardinal RN, Apergis-Schoute AM, Sule A, Fineberg NA, Robbins TW (2019): Action-outcome knowledge dissociates from behavior in obsessive-compulsive disorder following contingency degradation. Biological Psychiatry: CNNI, 4: 200-209.

“I was very fortunate to be supported by the Angharad Dodds John Bursary following the conclusion of my PhD studies in Behavioural Neuroscience at Downing College. I worked on 2 main projects during the Bursary. The first was an industrial-academic collaboration focussed on evaluating the potential of a novel antidepressant compound. The second involved the application of reinforcement learning modelling to a range of behavioural pharmacology datasets across multiple species.

I am extremely grateful for the Bursary, as it enabled me to build on the work I completed during my PhD whilst expanding my skills in data modelling, statistical programming and effective scientific collaboration. I still have plans to finalise and publish a number of further manuscripts.”

After the conclusion of the bursary period, Ben spent two years as a postdoctoral research associate at the Neuronal Oscillations Lab at the department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge. His work during this time utilised a range of neural monitoring and interventional techniques, including optogenetics, electrophysiological recording and calcium imaging, to investigate dopamine-dependent neural dynamics in the hippocampus.

Ben has now joined AstraZeneca as a Senior Statistician in the Quantitative Biology department at Cambridge.

Publications supported by the award

Phillips BU & Robbins TW. (2020) Role of central serotonin in impulsivity, compulsivity and decision-making: Comparative studies in experimental animals and humans Chapter 31 in Handbook of the Behavioral Neurobiology of Serotonin (2nd Edition). Eds. CP Muller and K Cunningham, pp 531-548. Elsevier,
Alsiö J, Phillips BU et al. (2019) Dopamine D2-like receptor stimulation blocks negative feedback in visual and spatial reversal learning in the rat: behavioural and computational evidence. Psychopharmacology, 2019. 236(8), 2307-2323
Lim J*, Kim E*, Nyun Jong H, Shinwon K, Phillips BU et al. (2019) Assessment of mGluR5 KO mice under conditions of low stress using a rodent touchscreen apparatus reveals impaired behavioural flexibility driven by perseverative responses. Molecular Brain, 12, Article 37 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13041-019-0441-8
Luo Q*, Kanen JW*, Bari A, Skandali N, Phillips BU, Alsio J, Sahakian BJ, Cardinal RN, Robbins TW. (2023) Computational modelling reveals converging effects of serotonin on flexible decision-making in rats and humans. Neuropsychopharmacology 49, 600–608 (2024)

Joost Haarsma 2018-2019

“The one-year fellowship that I was able to pursue thanks to the Angharad Dodds John Bursary allowed me to advance my skills in laminar neuroimaging. After the Fellowship I worked in Oxford in the lab of Dr Michael Browning as a post-doctoral researcher for 6 months. There I studied the role of the cholinergic system in how the brain learns from positive and negative feedback in changing environments, which is of relevance to understanding mood disorders.

In May 2020 I joined the lab of Dr Peter Kok at UCL where I study how expectations shape perception both in healthy individuals as well as individuals with perceptual abnormalities. The bursary has been of vital importance in joining this lab, as it allowed me to build up experience in laminar neuroimaging, making me more competitive for the position.''

Publications supported by the award:

Joost worked on the following two first author papers while in receipt of the bursary:

Haarsma J, Knolle F, Griffin J D, Taverne H, Mada M, Goodyer I ., ... & Nspn Consortium. (2020). Influence of prior beliefs on perception in early psychosis: Effects of illness stage and hierarchical level of belief. Journal of abnormal psychology, 129(6), 581-598..
Haarsma J, Fletcher P C, Griffin J D, Taverne H J, Ziauddeen H, Spencer T J, ... & Murray G K (2020). Precision weighting of cortical unsigned prediction error signals benefits learning, is mediated by dopamine, and is impaired in psychosis. Molecular psychiatry, 1-14.
The theoretical paper below was written by Joost on the use of laminar fMRI in psychosis research and was directly inspired by the research he was doing during his bursary year.
Haarsma J, Kok P, & Browning M (2022). The promise of layer-specific neuroimaging for testing predictive coding theories of psychosis. Schizophrenia Research. 245, 68-76.

Dr Jonathan Kanen 2019-2020

Jonathan Kanen completed his PhD in 2020, supported by a Gates Cambridge Scholarship, under the supervision of Professor Trevor Robbins. Jonathan holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, after which he worked as a junior research scientist in the laboratory of Professor Elizabeth Phelps at New York University.

“I am very grateful for the support of the Angharad Dodds John Bursary in Mental Health and Neuropsychiatry.

Following the bursary period, in summer 2021 I will complete the final two years of my MD degree at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University in Camden, New Jersey, my home state. I then plan to pursue specialisation in psychiatry via a residency programme in the United States.”

Over the course of his career, Jonathan hopes to facilitate communication and collaboration between the basic neuroscience and clinical communities with the ultimate aim of improving the lives of individuals suffering from mental illness.

Jonathan is currently a psychiatric research fellow at Mount Sinai Dept of Psychiatry , New York City.

Publications supported by the award:

Kanen JW, Arntz FE, Yellowlees R, Christmas DM, Price A, Apergis-Schoute AM, Sahakian BJ, Cardinal RN, Robbins TW (2021) Effect of tryptophan depletion on conditioned threat memory expression: role of intolerance of uncertainty. Biological Psychiatry: CNNI. 6(5), 590–598
Kanen JW, Apergis-SchouteAM, YellowleesR, Arntz FE, van der Flier FE, Price A, Cardinal RN, Christmas DM, Clark L, Sahakian BJ, Crockett MJ, RobbinsTW. (2021) Serotonin depletion impairs both Pavlovian and instrumental reversal learning in healthy humans. Molecular Psychiatry , 7200-7210 (2021)
Kanen JW, Luo Q, Kandroodi M, Cardinal RN, Robbins TW, Carhart-Harris RL, den Ouden HEM. (2022) Effect of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) on reinforcement learning in humans Psychological Medicine 53, 6434–6445.
Luo Q*, Kanen JW*, Bari A, Skandali N, Phillips BU, Alsio J, Sahakian BJ, Cardinal RN, Robbins TW. (2023) Computational modelling reveals converging effects of serotonin on flexible decision-making in rats and humans. Neuropsychopharmacology 49, 600–608 (2024).

Dr Lisa Duan 2020-2021

Lisa completed her PhD at the Department of Psychology and at the Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, supervised by Professor Trevor Robbins and is now pursuing a career at the World Health Organisation in Manila. The Bursary helped her to publish a journal article to the prestigious journal Neuron based on her PhD work.

“I am very grateful to have received the generous support from the Angharad Dodds John Bursary in Mental Health and Neuropsychiatry, to further my research on the underlying neurobiological mechanisms of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). I am planning to utilize the experience gained during my PhD to further my career in Mental Health and Life Sciences.”

Publications supported by the award

Duan, L. Y., Horst, N. K., Cranmore, S., Horiguchi, N., Cardinal, R. N., Roberts, A. C., & Robbins, T. W. (2021). Controlling one's world: Identification of sub-regions of primate PFC underlying goal- directed behavior. Neuron, 109(15), 2485–2498.e

Marjan Biria 2021-2022

Marjan completed her PhD in 2022 supervised by Professor Robbins, studying the underlying mechanisms of compulsions in schizophrenia patients on clozapine using a behavioural experiment, and by additionally using 7T Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy in patients with OCD.

“I was very grateful for the one-year support from the Angharad Dodds John Bursary in Mental Health and Neuropsychiatry. This was a critical year for me as my PhD was hugely impacted by the pandemic. Receiving this support allowed me to be able to finish my projects leading to high impact publications. The findings of my studies have increased our insights about the underlying clinical and cognitive determinants of dysfunctional checking in both OCD and schizophrenia patients. Additionally, and more importantly, the findings of our novel 7T study in OCD have led to clinical trials testing out new and hopefully better treatments for OCD.”

Publications supported by the award

Biria, M., Banca, P., Healy, M. P., Keser, E., Sawiak, S. J., Rodgers, C. T., ... & Robbins, T. W. (2023). Cortical glutamate and GABA are related to compulsive behaviour in individuals with obsessive compulsive disorder and healthy controls. Nature Communications, 14(1), 3324.
Biria, M., Banca, P., Keser, E., Healy, M. P., Sawiak, S. J., Marzuki, A. A., ... & Robbins, T. W. (2024). Excessive Checking in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Neurochemical Correlates Revealed by 7T Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy. Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science, 4(1), 363-373.
Biria, M., ... & Robbins, T. W. (2024). Clozapine-induced obsessive-compulsive symptoms in schizophrenia: Clinical and cognitive determinants of dysfunctional checking. (Submitted to Psychological Medicine).

Tsen Vei Lim 2021-22

Tsen Vei completed his PhD in 2022 at the Department of Psychiatry under the supervision of Professor Karen Ersche. His thesis studied the neurocomputational mechanisms underlying reinforcement learning in humans with substance use disorder.

“I am honoured to have received funding support from the Angharad Dodds John Bursary in Mental Health and Neuropsychiatry following my PhD. This award has enabled me to further develop my skills in computational modelling, with the goal to leverage these models to unpack the psychological mechanisms associated with addictive behaviours. During the award period, I have also worked on two publications on the neurocomputational mechanisms of addictive disorders. Undoubtedly, the funding support has been instrumental in enhancing my academic track record, and I am immensely grateful to the funders for their generosity.”

Following the bursary period, Tsen Vei continued to pursue his interest in the computational psychiatry of addictive disorders with Professor Karen Ersche as a postdoctoral research associate. In 2024, he was awarded the Griffith Edwards Academic Fellowship from the Society for the Study of Addiction (SSA) – a 3-year postdoctoral fellowship – to study the computational and biological substrates of maladaptive decision-making in cocaine addiction at the University of Cambridge.

Publications supported by the award

Lim, T. V., & Ersche, K. D. (2023). Theory-driven computational models of drug addiction in humans: Fruitful or futile? Addiction Neuroscience, 5, 100066. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addicn.2023.100066
Lim, T. V., & Ersche, K. D. (2024). Goal-Directed and Habitual Control in Human Drug Addiction. In Y. Vandaele (Ed.), Habits: Their Definition, Neurobiology, and Role in Addiction (pp. 251–272). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-55889-4_11

Katharina Zühlsdorff 2022-23

Katharina completed her PhD in the Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge in 2022 under the supervision of Prof Jeffrey Dalley. She was also awarded the Alan Turing Institute Enrichment Scheme Fellowship for the last year of her PhD. Katharina’s research investigated reinforcement learning processes in Major Depressive Disorder and Substance Use Disorder using computational and neuroimaging approaches.

“The Angharad Dodds John bursary enabled me to write up and publish multiple projects from my PhD and continue my research on the application of machine learning to large-scale datasets to aid in the prediction of neuropsychiatric diseases such as dementia. Furthermore, it gave me the opportunity to research an additional area of interest, on how women’s health affects the brain and behaviour.

I am incredibly grateful for the generosity of the John family and for having received the opportunity to deepen my research and contribute to our understanding of neuropsychiatric diseases.”

After completion of the bursary, Katharina started an accelerated graduate medicine programme at the University of Cambridge and has been appointed a Bye-Fellow at Downing College. She also continues working on her research involving large-scale datasets such as the UK Biobank and Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development studies, with the aim of developing machine learning models for predicting the onset of neuropsychiatric disorders. She hopes to contribute to this field further in the future as a clinician-scientist in the field of neuropsychiatry.

Publications supported by the award

El Sayed-Hervig, M.^*, Zühlsdorff, K.^*, Olesen, S.F., Phillips, B., Bozic, T., Dalley, J.W., Cardinal, R.N., Alsiö, J.A., Robbins, T.W. (2024). 5-HT 2A and 5-HT 2C receptor antagonism differentially modulate reinforcement learning and cognitive flexibility: behavioral and computational evidence. Psychopharmacology. doi.org/10.1101/2023.08.09.545287

Zühlsdorff, K., K., Verdejo-Roman, J., Clark, L., Albein-Urios, N., Soriano-Mas, C., Cardinal, R.N., Robbins, T.W., Dalley, J.W., Verdejo-Garcia, A., Kanen, J.W. (2024). Computational modeling of reinforcement learning and functional neuroimaging of probabilistic reversal dissociates compulsive behaviors in Gambling and Cocaine Use Disorder. British Journal of Psychiatry Open.doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2023.611

Zühlsdorff, K., Lopez-Cruz, L., Dutcher, E., Pama, C., Jones, J.A., Sawiak, S., Khan, S., Milton, A.L., Robbins, T.W., Bullmore, E.T., Dalley, J.W. (2022). Sex-dependent effects of early life stress on reinforcement learning and limbic cortico-striatal functional connectivity. Neurobiology of Stress. Elsevier, 22, p. 100507. doi.org/10.1016/j.ynstr.2022.100507