Dr Carl Roberts PhD, MRes, BSc

I have several publications and book chapters which focus on brain function following chronic drug use. Here I use multimodal neuroimaging techniques (EEG, fNIRS, fMRI, sMRI) to observe brain changes that are associated with illicit drug use (MDMA, cannabis, cocaine). The focus of this work is to better understand potential drug related harm, and to inform harm reduction strategies. I am interested in public health policy surrounding the misuse of drugs, as well as harm reduction interventions. I am also interested the potential development of brief interventions that may help reduce harmful drug use.

In addition to potential harms, and harm reduction. I am also interested in therapeutic potential of psychoactive substances

I am interested in observing how pharmaceutical drugs (typically for obesity of diabetes) produce changes in eating behaviour. There are several pharmaceutical drugs which purportedy produce weight loss, which work on various neurotransmitters. It is therefore entirely possible that these drugs produce different effects on eating behaviour. I am interested in looking at specific effects of pharmacotherapy on eating behaviour, with a keen interest in how this is underpinned by brain mechanisms and networks assocaited with reward motivated eating, satiety and behavioural control.

I am interested in the bi-directional relationship between microbiomes (skin and gut) and wellbeing/stress