Paul Faulkner

• PhD Cognitive Neuroscience
• Associate Professor at University of Roehampton

Background Real-life decisions are often complex because they involve making sequential choices that constrain future options. We have previously shown that to render such multi-step decisions manageable, people ‘prune’ (i.e. selectively disregard) branches of decision trees that contain negative outcomes. We have theorized that sub-optimal pruning...

Background: Negative emotional states contribute to cigarette smoking, and difficulties in regulating these states can hinder smoking cessation. Understanding the neural bases of these difficulties in smokers may facilitate development of novel therapies for Tobacco Use Disorder. Methods: Thirty-seven participants (18 smokers, 19 nonsmokers; 16-...

Over the past three decades, MRI has become a key tool to study how cognitive processes are implemented in the human brain. However, the question of whether participants recruited into MRI studies differ from participants recruited into other study contexts has received little to no attention. This is particularly pertinent when effects fail to gen...

Cigarette smoking is still the largest contributor to disease and death worldwide. Successful cessation is hindered by decreases in prefrontal glutamate concentrations and gray matter volume due to daily smoking. Because nondaily, intermittent smoking also contributes greatly to disease and death, understanding whether infrequent tobacco use is ass...

Background: Depression and low mood are leading contributors to disability worldwide. Research indicates that clinical depression may be associated with low creatine concentrations in the brain and low prefrontal gray matter volume. Because sub-clinical depression also contributes to difficulties in day-to-day life, understanding the neural mechani...

Purpose Healthy diets are believed to be associated with a reduced risk of experiencing common mental disorders (CMDs) and related symptomatology (such as ruminative thinking), and with healthier brain chemistry and structure, especially in the frontal regions implicated in CMDs, cognitive control, and food choice. Nevertheless, there is very limit...

Background It is well known that having maladaptive emotion regulation skills during childhood may predict mental health issues later in life, therefore, establishing links with gut microbiome could help develop gut-derived interventions directed at improving maladaptive emotion regulation skills during this critical developmental period. While dif...

There is emerging interest regarding the potential beneficial effects of creatine supplementation on indices of brain health and function. Creatine supplementation can increase brain creatine stores, which may help explain some of the positive effects on measures of cognition and memory, especially in aging adults or during times of metabolic stres...

Aims & Objectives Yoga has been evidenced as beneficial for physical and mental health. This study sought to pilot the acceptability and feasibility of a yoga‐integrated psychotherapy (YiP) intervention, aimed at alleviating difficulties in emotion regulation. A further aim was to explore the perceived effectiveness of YiP in alleviating depression...

Background Previous magnetic resonance imaging studies in regular cannabis users report altered grey matter volume (GMV) in brain regions, including the prefrontal cortex (PFC), putamen and hippocampus. However, most studies have tended to recruit recreational users with high levels of cannabis use, and have not controlled for the possible confound...

Yoga has been evidenced as beneficial for physical and mental health. The present study sought to pilot the acceptability and feasibility of a yoga-integrated psychotherapy intervention, aimed to alleviate difficulties in emotion regulation. A further aim was to explore the perceived effectiveness of YiP in alleviating depression, anxiety, and impr...

Background Negative emotions can promote smoking relapse during a quit attempt. The use of cognitive reappraisal to self-regulate these emotions may therefore aid smoking cessation. Determining whether smokers exhibit difficulties in the use of reappraisal, and which factors are associated with such difficulties, may aid smoking cessations. Method...

Background: Depression and low mood are leading contributors to disability worldwide. Research indicates that clinical depression may be associated with low creatine concentrations in the brain and low prefrontal grey matter volume. Because subclinical depression also contributes to difficulties in day-to-day life, understanding the neural mechanis...

Background: Negative emotions can promote smoking relapse during a quit attempt. The use of cognitive reappraisal to self-regulate these emotions may therefore aid smoking cessation. Determining whether smokers exhibit difficulties in the use of reappraisal, and which factors are associated with such difficulties, may aid smoking cessations.Methods...

Introduction The addition of graphic health warnings to cigarette packets can facilitate smoking cessation, primarily through their ability to elicit a negative affective response. Smoking has been linked to COVID-19 mortality, thus making it likely to elicit a strong affective response in smokers. COVID-19-related health warnings (C19HW) may there...

Over the past three decades, functional MRI (fMRI) has become key to study how cognitive processes are implemented in the human brain. However, the question of whether participants recruited into fMRI studies differ from participants recruited into other study contexts has received little to no attention. This is particularly pertinent when effects...

Background Cigarette craving, which can negatively impact smoking cessation, is reportedly stronger in women than in men when they initiate abstinence from smoking. Identifying approaches to counteract craving in people of different sexes may facilitate the development of personalized treatments for Tobacco Use Disorder, which disproportionally aff...

Introduction: The addition of graphic health warnings on cigarette packets can facilitate smoking cessation, primarily through their ability to elicit a negative affective response. Smoking is linked to COVID19 mortality, thus making it likely to elicit a strong affective response in smokers. COVID19-related health warnings (C19HW) may therefore en...

Cigarette smoking is still the largest contributor to disease and death worldwide. Successful cessation is hindered by decreases in prefrontal glutamate concentrations and gray matter volume due to daily smoking. Because non-daily, intermittent smoking also contributes greatly to disease and death, understanding whether infrequent tobacco use is as...

Background Real-life decisions are often complex because they involve making sequential choices that constrain future options. We have previously shown that to render such multi-step decisions manageable, people “prune” (i.e. selectively disregard) branches of decision trees that contain negative outcomes. We have theorized that sub-optimal pruning...

Background: Although nicotine alters serotonergic neurochemistry, clinical trials of serotonergic medications for smoking cessation have provided mixed results. Understanding the role of serotonergic dysfunction in tobacco use disorder may advance development of novel pharmacotherapies. Methods: Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to...

Cigarette craving contributes substantially to the maintenance of tobacco use disorder. Behavioral strategies to regulate craving may facilitate smoking cessation but remain underexplored. We adapted an emotion-regulation strategy, using proximal/distal self-positioning, to the context of cigarette craving to examine craving regulation in 42, daily...

RationalePolicies that establish a standard for reduced nicotine content in cigarettes can decrease the prevalence of smoking in the USA. Cigarettes with nicotine yields as low as 0.05 mg produce substantial occupancy of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (26%), but women and men respond differently to these cigarettes. Objective This study aimed to...

Important real-world decisions are often arduous as they frequently involve sequences of choices, with initial selections affecting future options. Evaluating every possible combination of choices is computationally intractable, particularly for longer multistep decisions. Therefore, humans frequently use heuristics to reduce the complexity of deci...

A subset of patients started on a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) initially experience increased anxiety, which can lead to early discontinuation before therapeutic effects are manifest. The neural basis of this early SSRI effect is not known. Presynaptic dorsal raphe neuron (DRN) 5-HT1A receptors are known to play a critical role in...

The use of cigarettes delivering different nicotine doses allows evaluation of the contribution of nicotine to the smoking experience. We compared responses of 46 young adult smokers to research cigarettes, delivering 0.027, 0.110, 0.231 or 0.763 mg nicotine, and conventional cigarettes. On five separate days, craving, withdrawal, affect and sustai...

Background: The effects of acute tryptophan depletion on human decision-making suggest that serotonin modulates the processing of rewards and punishments. However, few studies have assessed which of the many types of serotonin receptors are responsible. Methods: Using a within-subject, double-blind, sham-controlled design in 26 subjects, we examine...

Background: The effects of acute tryptophan depletion (ATD) on human decision-making suggest that serotonin modulates the processing of rewards and punishments. However, few studies have assessed which of the many types of serotonin receptors are responsible. Methods: Using a within-subject, double-blind, sham-controlled design in 26 subjects, w...

Significance Many problems, particularly sequential planning problems, are computationally very demanding. How humans combine strategies to approximate and simplify these problems is not understood. Using modelling to unpick performance in a planning task, we find that humans are able to exploit the structure of the task to subdivide it and reduce...

Recent evidence suggests that a state of good mental health is associated with biased processing of information that supports a positively skewed view of the future. Depression, on the other hand, is associated with unbiased processing of such information. Here, we use brain imaging in conjunction with a belief update task administered to clinicall...

Background: The amygdala is a central node in the brain network that processes aversive emotions and is extensively innervated by dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine [5-HT]) neurons. Alterations in DRN 5-HT1A receptor availability cause phenotypes characterized by fearful behavior in preclinical models. However, it is unknown...

The serotonin (5-HT) system has been implicated in both depression and reward and punishment processing. This thesis presents data from four studies designed to better understand the role of serotonin in decision-making and mood. Following the general introduction and description of the main experimental methods, the first experimental chapter pres...

The serotonin (5-HT) system has been reported to be involved in decision-making. A key component of this neurotransmitter system is the 5-HT1A receptor, and research is beginning to show how this receptor can influence decision-making. However, this relationship has rarely been studied in humans. This study assessed whether individual variability i...

Serotonin (5-HT) is thought to be critical for affect regulation in the brain and many antidepressants are thought to primarily work by altering 5-HT levels. However there has not been a validated means of directly imaging of endogenous 5-HT levels in humans. The main aims of this project are to image the effect of Citalopram on brain endogenous 5-...

Molecular Psychiatry publishes work aimed at elucidating biological mechanisms underlying psychiatric disorders and their treatment

Serotonin (5-HT) neurotransmission is implicated in cognitive and emotional processes and a number of neuropsychiatric disorders. The use of positron emission tomography (PET) to measure ligand displacement has allowed estimation of endogenous dopamine release in the human brain; however, applying this methodology to assess central 5-HT release has...