Dr. Luca Passamonti is a Senior Clinical Research Fellow and NHS Honorary Consultant Neurologist at the University of Cambridge and Cambridge University Hospitals. He works in the field of Experimental Neurology, Cognitive Neuroscience, and Neuroimaging at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience and has written numerous research articles in high-impact factor journals on these topics. Dr. Passamonti studies the brain mechanisms underlying variability in emotional behaviours, and their role in neuropsychiatric disorders. For example, he considers the neural underpinnings of individual differences in personality traits as neuroticism, impulsivity, and aggression. Improving our knowledge of the neurological roots of personality is not only of interest theoretically but also has the potential to lead to new and brain-based approaches to manage complex neuropsychiatric disorders.

Dorian has a variety of teaching and professional experience including as a counsellor (Lifeline Australia), platoon commander (Australian Army), and residential care worker (Unisson Disability). His research for his PhD at the University of Cambridge focuses on the neural origins of intelligent behaviour. “How do honey bees solve an abstract conceptual problem?”, “How can brains solve complex problems with simple network functionality”, “What brain mechanisms are involved in decision-making when humans are uncertain.”

Alex is PhD candidate at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit. His main research focus is to understand how our memory systems work. In the US (UC Davis) and in Germany, he worked on the effect of acute stress on memory. For his doctoral research at the University of Cambridge, Alex is investigating how prior knowledge in form of schemata influences the acquisition of new information using immersive virtual reality.