معرفی
Professor Sarah Garfinkel is an Honorary Professor of Clinical and Affective Neuroscience at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School, University of Sussex, affiliated with the Department of Psychiatry. Her research program centers on body-brain interactions, with a focus on interoception (the perception of internal bodily states) and its role in emotion, cognition, and psychiatric disorders including autism, anxiety, PTSD, and schizophrenia.
Her integrative approach combines:
- Functional MRI (fMRI) with cardiovascular monitoring
- Beat-to-beat blood pressure analysis
- Carotid baroreceptor stimulation
- Psychophysiological assessments
Key research themes include:
- Dissociable dimensions of interoception (accuracy, sensibility, awareness)
- Heart-brain interactions in fear/threat processing
- Neural correlates of interoceptive deficits in clinical populations
- Impact of autonomic states on decision-making and emotion regulation
Professor Garfinkel currently advises PhD students, including Georgina Heron, and collaborates extensively with researchers such as Hugo Critchley (ERC grant on cardiac timing), Dora Duka (alcohol-interoception interactions), and Marco Bozzali (carotid stimulation/fMRI).
