Dr Luke Clark

Luke  Clark

University position

Lecturer

Dr Luke Clark is pleased to consider applications from prospective PhD students.

Departments

Department of Experimental Psychology

Institutes

Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute

Email

lc260@cam.ac.uk

Home page

http://research.psychol.cam.ac.uk/~bcni//... (personal home page)

Research Themes

Cognitive and Behavioural Neuroscience

Clinical and Veterinary Neuroscience

Interests

My research is directed at the broad interface between psychological disorders and cognitive neuroscience, with a particular focus on the brain mechanisms underlying gambling decisions. Gambling is a popular recreational activity that can also become excessive in some people. Indeed, problem gambling shares a number of characteristics with substance use disorders, and may be usefully considered a 'behavioural addiction'. Using a combination of behavioural testing, psychophysiology and functional MRI, my lab has been studying how various features of gambling games (e.g. near-miss outcomes) influence choice and outcome processing during gambling. In other convergent research, we also study the effects of brain injury on decision-making, and the effects of various pharmacological agents on these processes.

Research Focus

Keywords

gambling

impulsivity

mood disorders

addiction

decision-making

Clinical conditions

Addiction

Bipolar disorder

Depressive disorders

Problem Gambling

Stroke

Equipment

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

Neuropsychological testing

Psychophysiology

Collaborators

Cambridge

Mike Aitken

Ed Bullmore

Barney Dunn

Ulrich Muller

Trevor Robbins

Barbara Sahakian

United Kingdom

Henrietta Bowden-Jones Web: http://www1.imperial.ac.uk/medicin...

Guy Goodwin Web: http://www.psychiatry.ox.ac.uk/

Robert Rogers Web: http://www.neuroscience.ox.ac.uk/directo...

International

Antoine Bechara Web: http://psychology.usc.edu/faculty...

Roshan Cools Web: http://www.ru.nl/fcdonde...

Wayne Drevets Web: http://neuroscience.nih.gov/Lab.asp...

Mary Phillips Web: http://www.wpic.pitt.edu/faculty...

Katalin Szanto Web: http://www.wpic.pitt.edu/faculty...

Key publications

Clark L, Lawrence AJ, Astley-Jones F, Gray N (2009), “Gambling near-misses enhance motivation to gamble and recruit win-related brain circuity” Neuron 61: 481-490

Lawrence AJ, Luty J, Bogdan NA, Sahakian BJ, Clark L (2009), “Problem gamblers share deficits in impulsive decision-making with alcohol-dependent individuals.” Addiction 104(6):1006-15 Details

Clark L, Bechara A, Damasio H, Aitken MR, Sahakian BJ, Robbins TW (2008), “Differential effects of insular and ventromedial prefrontal cortex lesions on risky decision-making.” Brain Details

Publications

2009

Clark L, Chamberlain SR, Sahakian BJ (2009), “Neurocognitive mechanisms in depression: implications for treatment.” Annu Rev Neurosci 32:57-74 Details

Clark L, Roiser J, Robbins T, Sahakian B (2009), “Disrupted ;reflection' impulsivity in cannabis users but not current or former ecstasy users.” J Psychopharmacol 23(1):14-22 Details

Clatworthy PL, Lewis SJ, Brichard L, Hong YT, Izquierdo D, Clark L, Cools R, Aigbirhio FI, Baron JC, Fryer TD, Robbins TW (2009), “Dopamine release in dissociable striatal subregions predicts the different effects of oral methylphenidate on reversal learning and spatial working memory.” J Neurosci 29(15):4690-6 Details

Roiser JP, Cannon DM, Gandhi SK, Taylor Tavares J, Erickson K, Wood S, Klaver JM, Clark L, Zarate CA Jr, Sahakian BJ, Drevets WC (2009), “Hot and cold cognition in unmedicated depressed subjects with bipolar disorder.” Bipolar Disord 11(2):178-89 Details

2008

Adida M, Clark L, Pomietto P, Kaladjian A, Besnier N, Azorin JM, Jeanningros R, Goodwin GM (2008), “Lack of insight may predict impaired decision making in manic patients.” Bipolar Disord 10(7):829-37 Details

Chase HW, Clark L, Sahakian BJ, Bullmore ET, Robbins TW (2008), “Dissociable roles of prefrontal subregions in self-ordered working memory performance.” Neuropsychologia 46(11):2650-61 Details

Crockett MJ, Clark L, Tabibnia G, Lieberman MD, Robbins TW (2008), “Serotonin modulates behavioral reactions to unfairness.” Science 320(5884):1739 Details

Devito EE, Blackwell AD, Clark L, Kent L, Dezsery AM, Turner DC, Aitken MR, Sahakian BJ (2008), “Methylphenidate improves response inhibition but not reflection-impulsivity in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).” Psychopharmacology (Berl) Details

DeVito EE, Blackwell AD, Kent L, Ersche KD, Clark L, Salmond CH, Dezsery AM, Sahakian BJ (2008), “The effects of methylphenidate on decision making in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.” Biol Psychiatry 64(7):636-9 Details

Dombrovski AY, Butters MA, Reynolds CF 3rd, Houck PR, Clark L, Mazumdar S, Szanto K (2008), “Cognitive performance in suicidal depressed elderly: preliminary report.” Am J Geriatr Psychiatry 16(2):109-15 Details

Lawrence A, Clark L, Labuzetta JN, Sahakian B, Vyakarnum S (2008), “The innovative brain.” Nature 456(7219):168-9 Details

Murray GK, Corlett PR, Clark L, Pessiglione M, Blackwell AD, Honey G, Jones PB, Bullmore ET, Robbins TW, Fletcher PC (2008), “Substantia nigra/ventral tegmental reward prediction error disruption in psychosis.” Mol Psychiatry 13(3):239, 267-76 Details

Passetti F, Clark L, Mehta MA, Joyce E, King M (2008), “Neuropsychological predictors of clinical outcome in opiate addiction.” Drug Alcohol Depend 94(1-3):82-91 Details

Roca M, Torralva T, López P, Cetkovich M, Clark L, Manes F (2008), “Executive functions in pathologic gamblers selected in an ecologic setting.” Cogn Behav Neurol 21(1):1-4 Details

Taylor Tavares JV, Clark L, Furey ML, Williams GB, Sahakian BJ, Drevets WC (2008), “Neural basis of abnormal response to negative feedback in unmedicated mood disorders.” Neuroimage 42(3):1118-26 Details

Verdejo-García A, Lawrence AJ, Clark L (2008), “Impulsivity as a vulnerability marker for substance-use disorders: review of findings from high-risk research, problem gamblers and genetic association studies.” Neurosci Biobehav Rev 32(4):777-810 Details

2007

Chase HW, Clark L, Myers CE, Gluck MA, Sahakian BJ, Bullmore ET, Robbins TW (2007), “The role of the orbitofrontal cortex in human discrimination learning.” Neuropsychologia Details

Clark L, Blackwell AD, Aron AR, Turner DC, Dowson J, Robbins TW, Sahakian BJ (2007), “Association between response inhibition and working memory in adult ADHD: a link to right frontal cortex pathology?” Biol Psychiatry 61(12):1395-401 Details

Taylor Tavares JV, Clark L, Cannon DM, Erickson K, Drevets WC, Sahakian BJ (2007), “Distinct profiles of neurocognitive function in unmedicated unipolar depression and bipolar II depression.” Biol Psychiatry 62(8):917-24 Details

Torralva T, Kipps CM, Hodges JR, Clark L, Bekinschtein T, Roca M, Calcagno ML, Manes F (2007), “The relationship between affective decision-making and theory of mind in the frontal variant of fronto-temporal dementia.” Neuropsychologia 45(2):342-9 Details

2006

Chamberlain SR, Müller U, Blackwell AD, Clark L, Robbins TW, Sahakian BJ (2006), “Neurochemical modulation of response inhibition and probabilistic learning in humans.” Science 311(5762):861-3 Details

Clark L, Robbins TW, Ersche KD, Sahakian BJ (2006), “Reflection impulsivity in current and former substance users.” Biol Psychiatry 60(5):515-22 Details

Ersche KD, Clark L, London M, Robbins TW, Sahakian BJ (2006), “Profile of executive and memory function associated with amphetamine and opiate dependence.” Neuropsychopharmacology 31(5):1036-47 Details

Rahman S, Robbins TW, Hodges JR, Mehta MA, Nestor PJ, Clark L, Sahakian BJ (2006), “Methylphenidate ('Ritalin') can ameliorate abnormal risk-taking behavior in the frontal variant of frontotemporal dementia.” Neuropsychopharmacology 31(3):651-8 Details

2005

Clark L, Kempton MJ, Scarnà A, Grasby PM, Goodwin GM (2005), “Sustained attention-deficit confirmed in euthymic bipolar disorder but not in first-degree relatives of bipolar patients or euthymic unipolar depression.” Biol Psychiatry 57(2):183-7 Details

Clark L, Roiser JP, Cools R, Rubinsztein DC, Sahakian BJ, Robbins TW (2005), “Stop signal response inhibition is not modulated by tryptophan depletion or the serotonin transporter polymorphism in healthy volunteers: implications for the 5-HT theory of impulsivity.” Psychopharmacology (Berl) 182(4):570-8 Details

Clark L, Scarna A, Goodwin GM (2005), “Executive function but not memory is impaired in first-degree relatives of bipolar I patients and in euthymic unipolar depression” American Journal of Psychiatry 162:1980-1982

Erickson K, Drevets WC, Clark L, Cannon DM, Bain EE, Zarate CA Jr, Charney DS, Sahakian BJ (2005), “Mood-congruent bias in affective go/no-go performance of unmedicated patients with major depressive disorder.” Am J Psychiatry 162(11):2171-3 Details

2004

Clark L, Cools R, Robbins TW (2004), “The neuropsychology of ventral prefrontal cortex: decision-making and reversal learning.” Brain Cogn 55(1):41-53 Details

Clark L, Goodwin GM (2004), “State- and trait-related deficits in sustained attention in bipolar disorder.” Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 254(2):61-8 Details

Cools R, Clark L, Robbins TW (2004), “Differential responses in human striatum and prefrontal cortex to changes in object and rule relevance.” J Neurosci 24(5):1129-35 Details

Turner DC, Clark L, Dowson J, Robbins TW, Sahakian BJ (2004), “Modafinil improves cognition and response inhibition in adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.” Biol Psychiatry 55(10):1031-40 Details

Turner DC, Clark L, Pomarol-Clotet E, McKenna P, Robbins TW, Sahakian BJ (2004), “Modafinil improves cognition and attentional set shifting in patients with chronic schizophrenia.” Neuropsychopharmacology 29(7):1363-73 Details

2003

Clark L, Manes F, Antoun N, Sahakian BJ, Robbins TW (2003), “The contributions of lesion laterality and lesion volume to decision-making impairment following frontal lobe damage.” Neuropsychologia 41(11):1474-83 Details

2002

Clark L, Iversen SD, Goodwin GM (2002), “Sustained attention deficit in bipolar disorder.” Br J Psychiatry 180:313-9 Details

Clark L, Robbins T (2002), “Decision-making deficits in drug addiction.” Trends Cogn Sci 6(9):361 Details

Cools R, Clark L, Owen AM, Robbins TW (2002), “Defining the neural mechanisms of probabilistic reversal learning using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging.” J Neurosci 22(11):4563-7 Details

Harmer CJ, Clark L, Grayson L, Goodwin GM (2002), “Sustained attention deficit in bipolar disorder is not a working memory impairment in disguise.” Neuropsychologia 40(9):1586-90 Details

Manes F, Sahakian B, Clark L, Rogers R, Antoun N, Aitken M, Robbins T (2002), “Decision-making processes following damage to the prefrontal cortex.” Brain 125(Pt 3):624-39 Details

2001

Clark L, Iversen SD, Goodwin GM (2001), “A neuropsychological investigation of prefrontal cortex involvement in acute mania.” Am J Psychiatry 158(10):1605-11 Details

Clark L, Iversen SD, Goodwin GM (2001), “The influence of positive and negative mood states on risk taking, verbal fluency, and salivary cortisol.” J Affect Disord 63(1-3):179-87 Details

McTavish SF, McPherson MH, Harmer CJ, Clark L, Sharp T, Goodwin GM, Cowen PJ (2001), “Antidopaminergic effects of dietary tyrosine depletion in healthy subjects and patients with manic illness.” Br J Psychiatry 179:356-60 Details

2000

Clark L, McTavish SF, Harmer CJ, Mills KR, Cowen PJ, Goodwin GM (2000), “Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation to right prefrontal cortex does not modulate the psychostimulant effects of amphetamine.” Int J Neuropsychopharmacol 3(4):297-302 Details