Dr Helen Barron

Supernumerary Fellow
Research

My research focuses on trying to index neural circuit activity in the human brain, to allow cognitive function to be understood at a mechanistic level. I investigate how memories are stored and recalled, with particular interest in the interaction between the hippocampus and neocortex, and the role of inhibition. Using a multi-modal approach I use non-invasive tools such as fMRI and MR spectroscopy to obtain a coarse read-out of neural processes. I then compare this with the equivalent microscopic descriptions obtained using multi-channel extracellular recordings and optogenetic manipulations. My work is based at the MRC Brain Network Dynamics Unit, and I am also a member of the Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging.

Publications

'Cross-species neuroscience: closing the explanatory gap', Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci. 2020

'Neural inhibition for continual learning and memory', Current Opinion in Neurobiology 2021

'Impaired inhibitory processing: a new therapeutic target for autism and psychosis?', British Journal of Psychiatry 2020

'A Checklist for Assessing the Methodological Quality of Concurrent tES-fMRI Studies (ContES Checklist): A Consensus Study and Statement', medRxiv 2020

'A mechanism for hippocampal memory recall based on excitatory-inhibitory fluctuations in neocortex', bioRxiv 2020

'Neuronal Computation Underlying Inferential Reasoning in Humans and Mice.' Cell, 2020

'Prediction and memory: a predictive coding account'Progress in Neurobiology, 2020

'The Hippocampus and Neocortical Inhibitory Engrams Protect against Memory Interference', Neuron 2019, discussed in this commentary

'Inhibitory engrams in perception and memory', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2017

'Repetition suppression: a means to index neural representations using BOLD?' Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci. 2016

'Unmasking latent inhibitory connections in human cortex to reveal dormant cortical memories', Neuron 2016 - summarised in this video

'Reassessing VMPFC: full of confidence?'Nature Neuroscience 2015

'Segregated encoding of reward identity and stimulus reward associations in human orbitofrontal cortex', Journal of Neuroscience 2013

'Online evaluation of novel choices by simultaneous representation of multiple memories'Nature Neuroscience 2013