معرفی
Heather Francis is an Associate Professor in Clinical Neuropsychology at Macquarie University's School of Psychological Sciences and serves as a Senior Clinical Neuropsychologist in the Neurology Department at Royal North Shore Hospital. Her dual role bridges academic research and clinical practice, focusing on nutritional neuroscience and cognitive remediation in neurological conditions.
Heather holds a Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) from Macquarie University (2005–2008) and a Combined PhD/Master of Clinical Neuropsychology from the same institution (2009–2013). Her doctoral research explored how high-fat and refined sugar diets impact memory, inhibition, and interoceptive sensitivity.
Her research interests encompass nutritional neuroscience, examining the effects of Western-style diets on cognition and mood, and the therapeutic potential of Mediterranean-style diets for depressed mood. She also investigates cognitive and social function assessment in neurological conditions like multiple sclerosis (MS) and brain injury. Current projects include studying inflammation’s role in cognitive fatigue among MS patients, evaluating group memory training efficacy, and analyzing group therapy impacts on cognition/mood in binge eating disorder.
Her recent articles span topics such as decision-making capacity in older adults, biases affecting fruit/vegetable consumption, prostate cancer survivors’ cognitive outcomes, and psychological hunger regulation mechanisms. These works underscore her interdisciplinary approach to understanding diet-neurology-behavior linkages.
Heather has no listed scientific awards but maintains a strong academic profile with 1,605 citations and an h-index of 19. She supervises PhD, Masters, and Honours students in areas like dietary neuroscience and cognitive rehabilitation. Her grants include long-term studies on diet-inflammation-mood connections and telehealth interventions for MS patients.
She contributes to the Lifespan Health and Wellbeing Research Centre and the Biomolecular Discovery Research Centre (BDRC), emphasizing collaborative work in health neuroscience and clinical practice.
