Fellow

Catherine Harmer is Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Oxford. She has carried out ground-breaking pharmacological studies to elucidate the mechanism of action of antidepressant medications, agents which are widely used but whose mode of action has been unclear, and whose use is often stigmatised in society. Her work has shown that the primary action of antidepressants is not on mood but rather on the way brain processes emotionally-laden information. Professor Harmer’s work has had a substantial impact on academic research in the treatment of depression and also in Industry where the emotional processing tasks she pioneered are increasingly used in antidepressant drug discovery.