Associate Prof. Helen Barron

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Photograph of Dr Helen Barron

Associate Prof. Helen Barron

UKRI Future Leaders Fellow

Helen studied Natural Sciences at University of Cambridge, before completing her PhD at University College London (UCL). During her PhD, Helen used Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to investigate mechanisms for memory and decision making in the human brain, with supervision from Prof. Tim Behrens and Prof. Ray Dolan at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging. In 2015, Helen was awarded a Junior Research Fellowship at the University of Oxford (Merton College). During this fellowship, and as a postdoctoral researcher, Helen worked with Prof. David Dupret at the MRC Brain Network Dynamics Unit (BNDU) where she developed a cross-species approach to gain new insights into the neural mechanisms that support inferential reasoning. In 2022, Helen was awarded a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship to set up her own research group at the BNDU and the Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, University of Oxford. Helen’s group investigates how cells and circuits in the brain work together to perform computations that support memory in both health and disease.

Key Research Areas
  • Defining hippocampal-neocortical interactions during learning, memory and sleep
  • Characterising the role of inhibitory interneurons in separating and integrating memories
  • How are memories used to support decision making?
  • Modulating neuronal computations to introduce perturbations in memory
  • Relating pathophysiology of memory circuits to core symptoms reported in psychiatric disease
Research Techniques
  • Electrophysiology (multiunit)

  • Calcium imaging

  • Optogenetic manipulations

  • Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS)

  • Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

  • Non-invasive brain stimulation

  • Behavioural quantification

Selected Publications
Unit Publication
Barron HC
Reeve HM
Koolschijn RS
Perestenko PV
Shpektor A
Nili H
Rothaermel R
Campo-Urriza N
O'Reilly JX
Bannerman DM
Behrens TE
Dupret D
2020. Cell, 183(1):228-243.e21.
Unit Publication
Koolschijn RS
Clarke WT
Ip IB
Emir UE
Barron HC

2023. Neuroimage, 276:120194.

Unit Publication
Koolschijn RS
Shpektor A
Clarke WT
Ip IB
Dupret D
Emir UE
Barron HC

2021. eLife, 10:e70071

Barron HC
Mars RB
Dupret D
Lerch JP
Sampaio-Baptista C

2021. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci, 376(1815):20190633.

Unit Publication
Koolschijn RS
Emir UE
Pantelides AC
Nili H
Behrens TE
Barron HC
2019. Neuron 101:528-541