Rate My Professor Pascal Carrive

Professor Pascal Carrive is a professor in the School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine & Health, at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney. He obtained his PhD from the University of Sydney in 1989. Carrive has been affiliated with UNSW since at least 1999, serving as Associate Professor until 2023 before his promotion to Professor. As the leader of the Carrive Group (Brain, Blood Pressure and Stress laboratory), he is a neuroscientist whose research centers on the organization of brain networks that control hyperarousal and the accompanying autonomic and behavioral responses to emotional stressors such as anxiety and fear. His work particularly emphasizes cardiovascular and thermogenic responses to stress, conducted in conscious rats and mice using a combination of anatomical, physiological, and behavioral methodologies. Broad research areas encompass neuroscience, cardiovascular disease, and pharmacology, with specific keywords including central control of cardiovascular function, anxiety disorders, autonomic nervous system, limbic system, and brain anatomy.

Carrive has made significant contributions through his publications, including two authoritative books: Chemoarchitectonic Atlas of the Rat Brain (2009, Elsevier) and Chemoarchitectonic Atlas of the Rat Brainstem (1999, Academic Press). He has authored 13 book chapters, such as "Central Circulatory Control: Psychological Stress and the Defense Reaction" (2011) and "Periaqueductal Gray" (2012), and numerous journal articles exceeding 100, with recent examples including "Pickle juice – and other pungent foods – as a grounding strategy for managing episodes of dissociative shutdown" (2026, Human Systems: Therapy, Culture and Attachments), "Behavioural and cardiovascular effects of orexin-A infused into the central amygdala under basal and fear conditions in rats" (2021, Behavioural Brain Research), and "Mitochondrial uncoupler BAM15 reverses diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance in mice" (2020, Nature Communications). His research has been supported by grants such as the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation Grant (2023-2025, co-Chief Investigator), as well as previous funding from the NHMRC and National Heart Foundation. Carrive teaches neuroanatomy and neurosciences to third-year science students and medical students, supervises postgraduate research on topics like the role of orexin receptors in central cardiovascular control during emotional stress, and is a member of the International Society of Autonomic Neuroscience (ISAN) and the Australasian Society of Autonomic Neuroscience (ASAN).