Ciara McCabe

Professor Ciara McCabe is Director of the Neuroscience Reward Group at the University of Reading's School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences. Her research examines human reward processing mechanisms at behavioral and neural levels using motivational tasks and computational modeling. Her primary focus involves investigating how reward pathways relate to anhedonia in depression across adult and adolescent populations, and how pharmacological and psychological treatments modulate these neural responses.

Her research interests encompass affective neuroscience, psychopharmacology of mood disorders, neural correlates of motivation, computational psychiatry, neuroimaging methodologies, and translational mental health interventions. Recent publications demonstrate interdisciplinary approaches combining neuroimaging with clinical investigations of dietary influences on brain function and longitudinal studies of stigma in depression.

Current work investigates behavioral learning patterns in adolescents with depression symptoms using ecological momentary assessment and computational modeling to understand reward-effort decision making. The Neuroscience Reward Group employs diverse methodologies including fMRI, ecological assessment, and psychopharmacological interventions.