Rate My Professor Hannah Clarke

Hannah Clarke is a University Lecturer in Neuroscience and MRC Fellow in the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge, where she also serves as Theme Lead for Neuroscience, Psychology and Behaviour in the School of Biological Sciences. She earned a BSc in Neuroscience from the University of Wales, Cardiff, and a PhD in the neurochemical control of prefrontal function in the marmoset monkey from the University of Cambridge, supervised by Trevor Robbins and Angela Roberts in the Department of Experimental Psychology. Following her PhD from 2001 to 2005, Clarke remained in Cambridge for postdoctoral training, holding a Research Fellowship from Newnham College. She subsequently secured an MRC Career Development Award in the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience before her appointment as University Lecturer.

Clarke's research investigates the neural and neurochemical basis of emotion regulation, cognitive flexibility, and negative emotional biases, with implications for psychiatric disorders such as depression and schizophrenia. Focusing on interactions among the hippocampus, amygdala, medial prefrontal cortex, and subgenual cingulate cortex, particularly modulated by serotonin and dopamine, she uses primate marmoset models and techniques including neurochemical manipulations, neuroimaging with MRI and PET, telemetric cardiovascular monitoring, neuropsychological tests, computational modelling, and genetic screening for proteins like BDNF and cortisol. Currently funded by the MRC, her work explores perineuronal nets in schizophrenia. Key publications include "Cognitive inflexibility after prefrontal serotonin depletion" (Science, 2004), "Lesions of the medial striatum in monkeys produce perseverative impairments during reversal learning similar to those produced by lesions of the orbitofrontal cortex" (Journal of Neuroscience, 2008), "Regional inactivations of primate ventral prefrontal cortex reveal two distinct mechanisms underlying negative bias in decision making" (PNAS, 2015), "Opposing roles of primate areas 25 and 32 and their interaction with the prelimbic cortex in threat processing" (Biological Psychiatry, 2017), "Over-activation of primate subgenual cingulate cortex induces a depressive endophenotype" (Nature Communications, 2020), and "Hippocampal perineuronal net degradation identifies disease-vulnerable neurons in a primate model of schizophrenia" (Science Advances, 2025). She contributes editorially as a Council Member of the British Association for Psychopharmacology until 2028 and serves on the Animals in Science Committee.