Melbourne
Neuropsychiatry
Centre
University of Melbourne and
Melbourne Health
Professor Ben J. Harrison
Professor Ben J. Harrison is the Deputy Scientific Director and head of the Depression and Anxiety Research Stream at the MNC
habj@unimelb.edu.au +61 3 8344 1959
Ben Harrison is Professor of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience and holds dual appointments at Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre (Deputy Scientific Director) and the Department of Psychiatry (Deputy Head). Ben completed an undergraduate BSc degree (psychology/psychophysiology) with first-class honours (2002), followed by a PhD in cognitive neuroscience (2006). His post-doctoral training in neuroimaging was undertaken in Barcelona under the mentorship of Jesus Pujol (2006-09). Since returning to the University, Ben has established an independent research program at MNC devoted to the neuroscience of mood and anxiety disorders. For this work he has received continued support from NHMRC fellowships and project grants. In addition to research contributions, Ben has active leadership roles across the Department of Psychiatry; Melbourne Medical School; and Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry & Health Sciences. In 2019, Ben was awarded one of the Faculty’s Inaugural ‘Dame Kate Campbell Fellowships for Research Excellence’.
Synopsis
PI Harrison, NHMRC project grant: "A neural systems model of fear dysregulation in anxiety disorders"
PIs Felmingham, Harrison, Steward: “Neurobiology of attention, avoidance and self-appraisal”.
PI Harrison, NHMRC project grant: "A brain-based model of anxiety senstivity in panic disorder".
PI Davey, NHMRC project grant: "A randomised controlled trial of low-dose ketamine in youth with severe depression and elevated suicide risk".
PI Harrison, NHMRC fellowship: "Depression and anxiety neuroscience".
PI Harrison, NHMRC project grant: “Neural predictors of treatment response in youth depression”.
If you are interested in discussing these research projects please contact Ben directly at habj@unimelb.edu.au
Current Projects and Funding
Savage H, Davey CG, Fullana MA, Harrison BJ (2020). Clarifying the neural substrates of threat and safety reversal learning in humans. NeuroImage 207: 116427
Davey CG, Harrison BJ (2018) The brain’s center of gravity: how the default mode network helps us to understand the self. World Psychiatry 17(3):278–279.
Fullana MA, Albajes-Eizagirre A, Soriano-Mas C, Vervliet B, Cardoner N, Benet O, Radua J, Harrison BJ (2018) Fear extinction in the human brain: A meta-analysis of fMRI studies in healthy participants. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 88:16–25.
Davey CG, Breakspear M, Pujol J, Harrison BJ (2017) A brain model of disturbed self-appraisal in depression. Am J Psychiatry 174(9):895–903.
Harrison BJ, Fullana MA, Via E, et al. (2017) Human ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the positive affective processing of safety signals. Neuroimage 152:12–18.
Fullana MA, Harrison BJ, Soriano-Mas C, et al. (2016) Neural signatures of human fear conditioning: an updated and extended meta-analysis of fMRI studies. Mol Psychiatry 21(4):500–508.
Davey CG, Pujol J, Harrison BJ (2016) Mapping the self in the brain’s default mode network. Neuroimage 132:390–397.
Select Publications