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About Alex
Dr Alex Pike is a Lecturer in Mental Health in the Department of Psychology at the University of York, a position she has held since 2022. She completed her academic training at the University of Oxford, earning a BA in Psychology and Philosophy (2011-2014), an MSc in Neuroscience (2014-2015), and a DPhil in Psychiatry focused on eating disorders and compulsivity using neural, computational, and psychopharmacological approaches (2015-2018; awarded 2019), supervised by Professor Phil Cowen and Dr Rebecca Park. Prior to joining York, Pike served as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Neuroscience and Mental Health Group at University College London’s Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience (2018-2022), mentored by Professor Oliver Robinson. Her research integrates computational modelling, cognitive neuroscience, and clinical psychology to examine cognitive differences in mental illness, particularly learning and decision-making in eating disorders and anxiety disorders. She investigates processes such as catastrophizing, intolerance of uncertainty, and control-seeking behaviors, employing methods including reinforcement learning models, neuroimaging, psychopharmacology, and online behavioral paradigms.
Pike has authored high-impact publications, including the systematic review and meta-analysis 'Reinforcement Learning in Patients with Mood and Anxiety Disorders vs Control Individuals' in JAMA Psychiatry (2022, cited 196 times), 'The translational neural circuitry of anxiety' in Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry (2019, cited 241 times), 'The development and psychometric properties of a self-report Catastrophizing Questionnaire' in Royal Society Open Science (2021), 'Adaptive learning from outcome contingencies in eating-disorder risk groups' in Translational Psychiatry (2023), and 'Computational Perspectives on Cognition in Anorexia Nervosa: A Systematic Review' forthcoming in Computational Psychiatry (2025). In 2024, she was awarded the Academy of Medical Sciences Springboard grant (up to £125,000) to advance independent research on feelings of control and self-efficacy in eating disorders. She contributes editorially as an editor for Royal Society Open Science (2023-2026) and guest editor for Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews (2021-2023), delivers invited talks such as 'Meta-analysis in computational psychiatry' (2024), engages in public outreach via anxiety discussion videos and Science Media Centre briefings, and teaches undergraduate modules on the cognitive neuroscience of anxiety and trauma. Pike accepts PhD students and is a member of the British Association of Psychopharmacology.
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