Dr. Claire Gillan
Associate Professor, Psychology
Associate Professor, Trinity Inst. of Neurosciences (TCIN)
Biography
Claire gained her PhD at the University of Cambridge in 2013 under the supervision of Trevor Robbins. She stayed in Cambridge to complete a short postdoc funded by the Medical Research Council, before being awarded a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship to work at New York University. At NYU, Claire worked on computational approaches to understanding psychiatry with Nathaniel Daw and Liz Phelps. In 2015, Claire received the Junior Investigator Award from British Association for Psychophamacology for her work on goal-directed learning in obsessive-compulsive disorder. She serves on the editorial board for Brain and Neurosciences Advances, the new flagship journal of the British Neuroscience Association.
Claire's lab at Trinity College Dublin is interested in developing novel approaches to studying brain health in psychiatric and ageing populations - a key goal is to develop objective tests that can be used to predict who will respond to which treatment. To undertake this work, since joining Trinity, Claire has been awarded a fellowship from MQ: transforming mental health to study machine learning predictors of treatment response. In addition, she has received funding from the Global Brain Health Institute and Science Foundation Ireland to develop a smartphone app 'Neureka' that engages the public in science on a large-scale.
Publications and Further Research Outputs
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Lee CT, Palacios J, Richards D, Hanlon AK, Lynch K, Harty S, Claus N, Swords L, O'Keane V, Stephan KE, Gillan CM, The Precision in Psychiatry (PIP) study: an internet-based methodology for accelerating research in treatment prediction and personalisation, 2022
Robert Whelan, Florentine M. Barbey, Marcia R. Cominetti, Claire M. Gillan, Anna M. Rosická, Developments in scalable strategies for detecting early markers of cognitive decline, Translational Psychiatry, 2022
Price, R.B., Ferrarelli, F., Hanlon, C., Gillan, C.M., Kim, T., Siegle, G.J., Wallace, M.L., Renard, M., Kaskie, R., Degutis, M., Wears, A., Brown, V., Rengasamy, M., Ahmari, S.E., Resting-State Functional Connectivity Differences Following Experimental Manipulation of the Orbitofrontal Cortex in Two Directions via Theta-Burst Stimulation, Clinical Psychological Science, 2022
Sean W. Kelley, Claire M. Gillan, Using language in social media posts to study the network dynamics of depression longitudinally, Nature Communications, 2022
Wise T, Robinson, O & Gillan, CM, Identifying transdiagnostic mechanisms in mental health using computational factor modeling, Biological Psychiatry, 2022
Sean W. Kelley, Caoimhe Ní Mhaonaigh, Louise Burke, Robert Whelan, Claire M. Gillan, Machine learning of language use on Twitter reveals weak and non-specific predictions, npj Digital Medicine, 5, (1), 2022
Alexandra Kathryn Hopkins, Claire Gillan, Jonathan Paul Roiser, Toby Wise, Nura Sidarus, Optimising the measurement of anxious-depressive, compulsivity and intrusive thought and social withdrawal transdiagnostic symptom dimensions, 2022
Legaz A, Abrevaya S, Dottori M, González Campo C, Birba A, Martorell Caro M, Aguirre J, Slachevsky A, Aranguiz R, Serrano C, Gillan CM, Leroi I, Ibañez A, Multimodal mechanisms of human socially reinforced learning across neurodegenerative diseases., Brain : a journal of neurology, 2022
Kelly R. Donegan, Claire M. Gillan, New principles and new paths needed for online research in mental health: Commentary on Burnette et al. (2021), International Journal of Eating Disorders, 2022
Vanessa M. Brown, Claire M. Gillan, Marlee Renard, Rachel Kaskie, Michelle Degutis, Anna Wears, Greg J. Siegle, Fabio Ferrarelli, Susanne E. Ahmari, Rebecca B. Price, A double-blind study assessing the impact of orbitofrontal theta burst stimulation on goal-directed behavior., Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science, 2022
Gillan CM, Rutledge RB, Smartphones and the Neuroscience of Mental Health., Annual review of neuroscience, 2021
Hunter LE, Meer EA, Gillan CM, Hsu M, Daw ND, Increased and biased deliberation in social anxiety., Nature human behaviour, 2021
Seow TXF, Benoit E, Dempsey C, Jennings M, Maxwell A, O'Connell R, Gillan CM, Model-Based Planning Deficits in Compulsivity Are Linked to Faulty Neural Representations of Task Structure., The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 2021
Seow TXF, Rouault M, Gillan CM, Fleming SM, How Local and Global Metacognition Shape Mental Health., Biological psychiatry, 2021
Kelly JR, Gillan CM, Prenderville J, Kelly C, Harkin A, Clarke G, O'Keane V, Psychedelic Therapy's Transdiagnostic Effects: A Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) Perspective., Frontiers in psychiatry, 2021
Seow TXF, Rouault M, Gillan CM, Fleming SM, Reply to: Metacognition, Adaptation, and Mental Health., Biological psychiatry, 2021
Price RB, Gillan CM, Hanlon C, Ferrarelli F, Kim T, Karim HT, Renard M, Kaskie R, Degutis M, Wears A, Vienneau EP, Peterchev AV, Brown V, Siegle GJ, Ahmari SE, Effect of Experimental Manipulation of the Orbitofrontal Cortex on Short-Term Markers of Compulsive Behavior: A Theta Burst Stimulation Study., The American journal of psychiatry, 2021
TXF Seow, CM Gillan, Transdiagnostic Phenotyping Reveals a Host of Metacognitive Deficits Implicated in Compulsivity, Scientific Reports, 10, (1), 2020
Gillan CM & Seow TXF, Carving out new transdiagnostic dimensions for research in mental health, Biological Psychiatry: CNNI, 2020
Brown V, Chen J, Gillan CM, Price R., Improving the reliability of computational analyses: Model-based planning and its relationship with compulsivity, Biological Psychiatry: CNNI, 2020
Recent developments in the habit hypothesis of OCD and compulsive disorders in, editor(s)Naomi A. Fineberg and Trevor W. Robbins , Future Trends In Obsessive-Compulsive And Related Disorders, Cambridge, Springer, 2020, [Gillan, CM]
Gillan CM, Vaghi MM, Hezemans FH, van Ghesel Grothe S, Dafflon J, Brühl AB, Savulich G, & Robbins TW., Experimentally-induced and real-world acute anxiety have no effect on goal-directed behaviour., Psychological Medicine, 2020
Seow TXF, Benoit E, Dempsey C, Jennings M, Maxwell A, McDonough M, Gillan CM, A dimensional investigation of error-related negativity (ERN) and self-reported psychiatric symptoms., International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology, 2020
Browning M, Huys, Q, Paulus M, Frank M, Chatham C, Carter C, Den Ouden H, Gillan CM, Chekroud A, Gold J, Phillips M, Powers A, Baker J, Mourao-Miranda J, Stephan KE, Cools R, Dayan P, Hartley C, Roiser J, Schmack K, Sebold M, Kepecs A, Lawson R, Pizzagalli D, Rindskopf D, Schiller D. , Realizing the Clinical Potential of Computational Psychiatry: Report from the Banbury Centre Meeting, February 2019, Biological Psychiatry, 2020
Gillan CM, Kalanthroff E, Evans M, Weingarden HM, Jacoby RJ, Gershkovich M, Snorrason I, Campeas R, Cervoni C, Crimarco N, Sokol Y, Garnaat SL, Mclaughlin N, Phelps EA, Pinto A, Boisseau CL, Wilhelm S, Daw ND, Simpson HB , Comparison of the association between goal-directed planning and self-reported compulsivity vs obsessive-compulsive disorder diagnosis, JAMA Psychiatry, 2019
Brain and Neuroscience Advances, (2019), 2017 - 2018p, Gillan, CM, Rudebeck, P, [eds.]
Luijten, M, Gillan CM, de Wit S, Franken I, Robbins TW, Ersche, K, Goal-directed and habitual control in smokers, Nicotine and Tobacco Research, 2019
de Wit S, Kindt M, Knot SL, Verhoeven AAC, Robbins TW, Gasull-Camos J, Evans M, & Mirza H, Gillan CM, Shifting the balance between goals and habits: five failures in experimental habit induction, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 2018
Wheaton MG*, Gillan CM*, Simpson HB, Does cognitive-behavioral therapy affect goal-directed planning in obsessive-compulsive disorder?, Psychiatry Research , 2018
Apergis-Schoute AM, Bijleveld B, Gillan CM, Fineberg NA, Sahakian BJ and Robbins TW, Hyperconnectivity of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in obsessive-compulsive disorder., Brain and Neuroscience Advances, 2018
Wu Y, Clark L, Ziliolid S, Eisenegger C, Gillan CM, Dengh H, Lia H, Single dose testosterone administration modulates emotional reactivity and counterfactual choice in healthy males, Psychoneuroendochronology, 2018
Rouault M, Seow T, Gillan CM, Fleming SM, Psychiatric symptom dimensions are associated with dissociable shifts in metacognition but not task performance., Biological Psychiatry, 2018
Fineberg NA, Apergis-Schoute AM, Vaghi MM, Banca P, Gillan CM, Voon V, Chamberlain SR, Cinosi E, Reid J, Shahper S, Bullmore ET, Sahakian BJ, Robbins T, Mapping Compulsivity in the DSM - 5 Obsessive Compulsive and Related Disorders: Cognitive Domains, Neural Circuitry And Treatment. , International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, 21, (1), 2018, p42 - 58
Annemieke M. Apergis-Schoutea, Claire M. Gillan, Naomi A. Fineberg, Emilio Fernandez-Egea, Barbara J. Sahakian, Trevor W. Robbins, Neural basis of impaired safety signaling in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, PNAS, 114, (12), 2017, p3216 - 3221
Tobias-Webb J, Limbrick-Oldfield EH, Gillan CM, Moore JW, Aitken MRF, and Clark, Let me take the wheel: illusory control and sense of agency, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 2017
Habits and Goals in OCD in, editor(s)C. Pittenger , Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Phenomenology, Pathophysiology and Treatment, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2017, [Gillan CM]
Gillan CM, Fineberg NA, Robbins TW, A Trans-Diagnostic Perspective on Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Psychological Medicine, 47, (9), 2017
Gillan, C.M. and Whelan, R., What big data can do for treatment in psychiatry, Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 18, 2017, p34-42
Gillan CM, Kosinski M, Whelan R, Phelps EA & Daw ND, Characterizing a psychiatric symptom dimension related to deficits in goal-directed control, eLife, 5, (e11305), 2016
An associative account of avoidance. In Handbook of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning in, editor(s)Robin Murphy & Rob Honey , The Wiley Handbook on the Cognitive Neuroscience of Learning, Wiley & Sons, 2016, pp442 - 468, [Gillan, CM, Urcelay, GU & Robbins, TW]
Gillan CM, Robbins TW, Sahakian BJ, van den Heuvel O & van Wingen G, The role of habit in compulsivity, European Neuropsychopharmacology, 26, (5), 2016, p828 - 840
Gillan CM & Daw ND, Taking psychiatry research online, Neuron, 91, (1), 2016, p19 - 23
Godier LR, de Wit S, Pinto A, Steinglass JE, Greene AL, Scaife J, Gillan CM, Walsh BT, Simpson HB, Park, RJ, An investigation of habit learning in Anorexia Nervosa, Psychiatry Research, 2016
Ersche KD, Gillan CM, Jones PS, Williams GB, Luitjen M, de Wit S, Ward LHE, Sahakian BJ, Bullmore ET, and Robbins TW, Carrots and sticks fail to change behavior in cocaine addiction, Science, 352, (6292), 2016, p1468 - 1471
Gillan CM & Sahakian BJ, What is the driver, obsessions or compulsions in OCD?, Neuropsychopharmacology, 40, (1), 2015, p247 - 248
Gillan CM, Apergis-Schoute A, Morein-Zamir S, Urcelay GP, Sule A, Fineberg NA, Sahakian BJ, Robbins TW, Functional neuroimaging of avoidance habits in OCD, American Journal of Psychiatry, 2015, p1 - 10
Gillan CM, Otto AR, Phelps EA, Daw ND, Model-based learning protects against forming habits, Cognitive Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience, 15, (3), 2015, p523 - 536
Fineberg NA, Chamberlain SR, Goudriaan AE, Stein DJ, Vanderschuren LJMJ, Gillan CM, Shekar S, Gorwood PAPM, Voon V, Morein-Zamir S, Denys D, Sahakian BJ, Moeller GF, Robbins TW, Potenza MN, New Developments in Human Neurocognition: Clinical, Genetic and Brain Imaging Correlates of Impulsivity and Compulsivity, CNS Spectrums, 19, 2014, p69 - 89
Gillan CM, Morein-Zamir S, Kaser M, Fineberg NA, Sule A, Sahakian BJ, Cardinal R, Robbins TW, Counterfactual decision-making in obsessive-compulsive disorder: further evidence for impaired goal-directed control, Biological Psychiatry, 75, (8), 2014, p639 - 646
Voon V, Derbyshire K, Rück C, Irvine MA, Worbe Y, Enander J, Schreiber LRN, Gillan CM, Fineberg NA, Sahakian BJ, Robbins TW, Harrison NA, Wood J, Daw ND, Dayan P Grant JE, Bullmore ET, Disorders of compulsivity: a common bias towards learning habits, Molecular Psychiatry, 20, 2014, p345 - 352
Gillan CM & Robbins TW, Goal-directed learning and obsessive-compulsive disorder, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 5, (369), 2014, p1655-
Gillan CM, Morein-Zamir S, Durieux, A, Fineberg NA, Sahakian BJ, Robbins TW, Obsessive-compulsive disorder patients have a reduced sense of control on the illusion of control task, Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 2014, p204-
Gillan CM, Morein-Zamir S, Urcelay GP, Sule A, Voon V, Apergis-Schoute A, Fineberg NA, Sahakian BJ, Robbins TW, Enhanced avoidance habits in obsessive-compulsive disorder, Biological Psychiatry, 75, (8), 2014, p631 - 638
Morein-Zamir S, Papmeyer M, Gillan CM, Fineberg NA, Robbins TW, Sahakian BJ, Punishment induces an impulsive response style in OCD: Evidence from a motivational go/no go task, Psychological Medicine, 43, (2), 2013, p391 - 400
Robbins TW, Gillan CM, Smith D, de Wit S, Ersche KD, Neurocognitive endophenotypes; a dimensional approach to psychiatry, Trends in Cognitive Neuroscience, 16, (1), 2012, p81 - 91
Gillan CM, Papmeyer M, Morein-Zamir S, Sahakian BJ, Fineberg NA, Robbins TW, de Wit S, Disrupted balance between goal-directed behavior versus habit learning in obsessive-compulsive disorder, American Journal of Psychiatry, 168, (7), 2011, p718 - 726
Non-Peer-Reviewed Publications
Sean Kelley, Aaron Jason Fisher, Chi Tak Lee, Eoghan Gallagher, Anna K Hanlon, Ian Robertson, Claire Gillan, Elevated Emotion Network Connectivity Leaves People Vulnerable to Fluctuations in Depression, biorxiv, 2022
Research Expertise
Description
The goal of my research is to drive innovation in mental health science, developing models to understand how alterations in fundamental brain processes leave people vulnerable. We also work on translating basic insights into clinical applications, such as tools for treatment selection and early detection" this is not just to realise impact from our research, but because I believe one of the hardest tests of any basic theory of human behaviour is its successful translation in the real world. I have made a series of important discoveries that have advanced our understanding of how habits are formed and overcome. I have used this to build theories of how they relate to disorders of compulsion like OCD, which feature in our psychology undergraduate textbooks. I have developed several new methods for advancing research in computational psychiatry. For example, defining mental health problems dimensionally (rather than categorically) in terms of their underlying mechanisms using `computational factor modelling". I have built a smartphone app (www.neureka.ie) that is both a tool for research and public engagement (18,000 registered users), and have pioneered novel methods for studying how mood states evolve over time using natural language processing. I work with several mental health companies to translate the basic research insights into real clinical impact, including treatment selection tools (e.g. Silvercloud Health, Woebot). I have published in major international journals including in the past 3 years in Nature Communications, Biological Psychiatry and JAMA Psychiatry. I review, interview and consult for major funding panels (e.g. ERC, Wellcome, NIMH). I have won several awards including being named Science Foundation Ireland Early Career Researcher of the Year (2022). I have been invited to give 3 plenaries (e.g Society for Biological Psychiatry Conference, 2023) and collaborate with over a dozen international research groups (incl. Princeton, Harvard, UCL, Oxford).Projects
- Title
- The DETECT project Developing a global infrastructure for digital brain health research at GBHI
- Funding Agency
- Global Brain Health Institute
- Date From
- 01/2018
- Date To
- 01/2020
- Title
- A computational approach to identifying trans-diagnostic predictors of antidepressant response
- Summary
- Many patients with depression do not respond to their first drug treatment; it often takes several attempts before something works. This lack of precision means that patients suffer through months of ineffective treatment before getting any relief. I aim to improve matters by developing a tool that can be used to estimate a person's likelihood of benefitting from a range of treatments, based on a set of clinical, demographic and cognitive data, which are designed to be feasible to collect in a clinical setting. In order to develop this algorithm, using a technique called machine learning, we need lots of data. Specifically, we need to collect data from hundreds of individuals who are starting out on a new antidepressant treatment and follow their progress over several weeks. To achieve this, I will take this study out of the laboratory and into people's homes via the Internet. Once the algorithm has been trained using data collected online, we will test how well it performs in three local clinics. If successful, this project might one day revolutionise how we assign personalised treatments to individuals suffering from mental health problems.
- Funding Agency
- MQ
- Date From
- 2017
- Date To
- 2020
- Title
- A neurocomputational investigation of Pavlovian-instrumental interactions in avoidance
- Funding Agency
- Wellcome Trust
- Date From
- 2013
- Date To
- 2017
Recognition
Representations
NIH roundtable on computational psychiatry, Panellist
Interview Panel for Wellcome Trust Mental Health Award: Looking Backwards, Moving Forwards
Journal Peer Review for Science Advances
Scientific Advisory Board for Plato Science
Advisory Board for the Wellcome Trust Mental Health Priority Area
Advisory Board: It Get's Brighter (UK mental health charity)
Editorial Board at eLife
Editorial Board: Brain and Neuroscience Advances (journal)
NIMH Computational Psychiatry Working Group. NIMH, Bethesda, USA.
International computational psychiatry consensus statement working group. Banbury Meeting, Cold Spring Harbour, USA.
Grant Review: National Institute of Mental Health (NIIMH), R21 scheme
Grant Review: Medical Research Council (MRC), UK
Grant Review: European Research Council (ERC), Consolidator scheme
Grant Review: Marie Curie
Grant Review: Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
Journal Peer Review: American Journal of Psychiatry
Journal Peer Review: Behavior, Research and Therapy
Journal Peer Review: Behavioural Brain Research
Journal Peer Review: Biological Psychiatry
Journal Peer Review: British Journal of Psychiatry
Journal Peer Review: Clinical Psychological Science
Journal Peer Review: Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience
Journal Peer Review: Cognition and Emotion
Journal Peer Review: Current Biology
Journal Peer Review: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences
Journal Peer Review: Depression and Anxiety
Journal Peer Review: eLife
Journal Peer Review: European Journal of Neuroscience
Journal Peer Review: Human Brain Mapping
Journal Peer Review: JAMA psychiatry
Journal Peer Reviewer: Journal of Behavioral Addictions
Journal Peer Review: Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science
Journal Peer Review: Journal of Experimental Psychology: General
Journal Peer Review: Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders
Journal Peer Review: Journal of Psychiatry and Clinical Practice
Journal Peer Review: Molecular Psychiatry
Journal Peer Review: Nature Human Behavior
Journal Peer Review: Neuroimage: Clinical
Journal Peer Review: Neuropsychopharmacology
Journal Peer Review: Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
Journal Peer Review: PLOS Biology
Journal Peer Review: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)
Journal Peer Review: Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry
Journal Peer Review for Psychiatry Research
Journal Peer Review for Psychological Medicine
Journal Peer Review for Psychological Science
Journal Peer Review for Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
Journal Peer Review for Schizophrenia Research
Masters thesis supervisor for ENS Paris MA programme
Awards and Honours
Early Career Award from the Society for Neuroeconomics
Ziskind-Somerfeld Research Award for Outstanding Research Investigations in Biological Psychiatry, Honorable Mention
Junior Investigator Award, British Association for Psychopharmacology
Postdoc Travel Award, British Association for Psychopharmacology
UK Science & Innovation Network Travel Grant
InSRI Annual Meeting Poster Award
Guarantors of Brain Travel Award
Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship
Isaac Newton Trust Public Engagement Grant
Medical Research Council Centenary Postdoctoral Fellowship
Oon Khye Beng Chʹhia Tsio Studentship Award
Downing College Academic Travel Award
Oon Khye Beng Chʹhia Tsio Studentship Award
Medical Research Council PhD Studentship
Cambridge European Trust Studentship (declined)
Hodson Endowment Award
University College Dublin, Entrance Scholarship
Top 30 Thinkers Under 30 (Pacific Standard)
Memberships
Society for Neuroeconomics
Neuroscience Ireland
British Association for Psychopharmacology
Society of Biological Psychiatry