Treating addiction through the neuroscience of reward and social connection.

[Bio — training, previous positions, what you lead. Work spans addiction, social neuroscience, and the translational psychopharmacology of oxytocin and psychedelics.]

[Undergrad → PhD → previous positions → now.]

Sophie's primary work uses freely moving fiber photometry in the lab's social operant model to ask how distinct populations of cells in the prefrontal cortex and striatum encode different aspects of social reward. She also supports neural recordings in disease states and advanced microscopy, and is setting up Neuropixels for single-unit recording across the medial prefrontal cortex.

Fiber photometry; wide-field calcium imaging; Neuropixels (in development); super-resolution microscopy; intracranial surgery, in which she trains the lab's PhD students.

PhD at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and the University of Tasmania. Postdoctoral researcher in the lab at the University of Sydney. Preparing a fellowship on prefrontal control over reward-based decision-making; plans to return to Melbourne in late 2027.

The neurobiology and translational psychopharmacology of oxytocin-based therapies for methamphetamine use disorder. Spans endogenous oxytocin signalling and astrocytic regulation, behavioural-economic modelling of intermittent access, social-versus-drug choice, and the limits of intranasal oxytocin dosing.

IV self-administration with jugular catheter surgery; intracranial surgery for chemogenetics; fiber photometry; operant behaviour on Med Associates systems; immunohistochemistry and confocal microscopy; AAV for CRISPR, DREADDs, photometry.

BBiomedSci, University of Newcastle. Master of Brain and Mind Sciences, University of Sydney (2022), in the lab. PhD in the lab, submitting June 2026, then a postdoc.

Psilocybin and non-hallucinogenic psychedelic analogues for methamphetamine use disorder, from serotonergic pharmacology and the head-twitch response to viral-and-imaging work on neuroplasticity and how psilocybin shapes the integration of aversive information.

IV self-administration; serotonergic pharmacology; head-twitch response; the social operant platform he helped build; combined viral and imaging techniques.

BPsych (Hons), in the lab 2023. RA 2024. PhD since 2024, through the National Industry PhD Program with Xylo Bio.

Psychedelics and the translatable EEG signatures they produce, including how non-hallucinogenic 5-HT2A agonists generate a similar EEG profile and promote neuroplasticity without disrupting sensory processing or cortical synchrony.

Pharmacology; cognitive and anxiety behaviours; EEG with surgery; Python/R analysis pipelines; polysomnography; seizure profiling (in development).

BPsych (Hons), in the lab 2024. RA since 2025. PhD from October 2026, co-supervised by Dr Daria Anderson (Biomedical Engineering).

Master's on the contribution of endogenous hypothalamic oxytocin signalling to social operant reward and motivation, using Gq- and Gi-coupled DREADDs in oxytocin neurons. Now supports projects across psychedelics, non-hallucinogenic 5-HT2A agonists, and alcohol use disorder.

Chemogenetics (Gq/Gi DREADDs in oxytocin neurons); social operant behaviour; immunohistochemistry; the mouse head-twitch response pipeline.

Master of Brain and Mind Sciences, University of Sydney (2025), in the lab. RA since 2025. Planning a PhD.