Biography
Valerie is a Professor of Neuropsychiatry and Neuromodulation at the University of Cambridge and a Distinguished Professor at Fudan University, Shanghai.
Her research explores why we repeat harmful behaviours or make impulsive, risky decisions—processes central to everyday life and often disrupted in psychiatric disorders. Her group studies the mechanisms of self-control, compulsivity, emotion, and incentives, with a focus on addiction and compulsive disorders. The lab aims to identify modifiable physiological biomarkers to guide and optimise invasive and non-invasive neuromodulation therapies. Their work is highly translational, developing targeted, adaptive, and real-time therapeutic approaches. Valerie also leads a UK-wide Medical Research Council study on deep brain stimulation for addiction, using imaging, physiology, pharmacological challenges, cognitive neuroscience, and computational modelling.
Publications
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Deep Brain Stimulation of the Subthalamic Nucleus and Risk Aversion: Towards a Model of Impulsivity (Voon et al., Nature Mental Health, 2024) – DOI:10.1038/s44220‑024‑00289‑z
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Neurophysiological Stratification of Major Depressive Disorder by Distinct Trajectories (Di Chen, Xiang Wang, Voon et al., Nature Mental Health, 2023) – DOI:10.1038/s44220‑023‑00139‑4
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Mechanisms Underlying Capsulotomy for Refractory Obsessive‑Compulsive Disorder: Neural Correlates of Negative Affect Processing Overlap with Deep Brain Stimulation Targets (Cui H. et al., Molecular Psychiatry, 2023)
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Risk and Aversion Coding in Human Habenula High Gamma Activity (Manssuer L. et al., Brain, 2023)
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Frequency‑Dependent Emotion Differentiation and Directional Coupling in Amygdala, Orbitofrontal and Medial Prefrontal Cortex Network with Intracranial Recordings (Sonkusare S. et al., Molecular Psychiatry, 2023)
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Mesial Prefrontal Cortex and Alcohol Misuse: Dissociating Cross‑Sectional and Longitudinal Relationships in UK Biobank (Zhao Y., Skandali N., Bethlehem RAI, Voon V., Biological Psychiatry, 2022)
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Acute Time‑Locked Alpha‑Frequency Subthalamic Stimulation Reduces Negative Emotional Bias in Parkinson's Disease (Mandali A., Manssuer L., Zhao Y., Zhang C., Wang L., Ding Q., Pan Y., Li D., Sun B., Voon V., Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience & Neuroimaging, 2020)
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Cortical Paired Associative Stimulation Influences Response Inhibition: Cortico‑cortical and Cortico‑subcortical Networks (Kohl S., Hannah R., Rocchi L., Nord CL., Rothwell J., Voon V., Biological Psychiatry, 2019)
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Evidence Accumulation and Neural Correlates of Uncertainty in Obsessive‑Compulsive Disorder (Zhao YJ., Zhang Y., Wang Q., Manssuer L., Cui H., Ding Q., Sun B., Liu W., Voon V., Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience & Neuroimaging, 2023)
