Robbins is Director of the University of Cambridge Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute (BCNI).[1] He is an Emeritus Fellow ofDowning College, Cambridge,[4] and Past-President of theBritish Neuroscience Association (BNA), the British Association for Psychopharmacology (BAP) and the European Behavioural Pharmacology Society (EBPS).[5]
Following admittance inJesus College, Cambridge, Robbins obtained his Bachelor of Arts withFirst Class Honours in psychology in 1971.[6] Following this, he received his PhD degree from the University of Cambridge in 1975 for an analysis of the behavioural effects ofDextroamphetamine.[7] His doctoral supervisor wasSusan Iversen.[8]
Robbins is a keenchess player and represented both England Juniors in 1967 and the University of Cambridge as an undergraduate. He was once ranked in the top twenty players in England and had one of his wins from aVarsity match in 1970 featured as a classic game inThe Sunday Times.[9][10]
Robbins was appointed as a Demonstrator in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Cambridge in 1973. He was subsequently promoted to Lecturer andReader, before becoming Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience in 1997.[6] Robbins was elected to the Chair, and therefore Head of Department, of Psychology in October 2002, stepping down from the latter role in 2017.[3]
The focus of Robbins' work is on the functions of thefrontal lobes of the brain and their regulation by the chemical neurotransmitter systems in humans and other animals.[3] This work is relevant to neuropsychiatric disorders includingschizophrenia, depression, drug addiction,obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD),attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), as well asParkinson's andAlzheimer's diseases.[2][11] Robbins also employs psychological paradigms for investigating cognitive functions, including planning, decision making, learning, attention and self-control, often withbrain imaging.[3][12] His research covers the mechanisms underlying possible cognitive enhancing effects of drugs[13] and understanding the causation and neural basis of drug addiction and impulsive-compulsive behaviour.[3][14]
The work of Robbins and his collaborators led to the formation of the BCNI in 2005, which is jointly funded by theMedical Research Council (MRC) and theWellcome Trust.[15] Robbins is director of the institute, which focuses on translational work leading to the treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders.[6]
Robbins' research uses neuropsychological tests, such as theCambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB), which he co-invented with ProfessorBarbara Sahakian in the 1980s.[11] CANTAB is now used at over 700 research institutes worldwide and is backed by over 1,200 peer-review articles.[35] Robbins serves as a Senior Consultant to Cambridge Cognition, a spin-out of the University of Cambridge. Cambridge Cognition now provides CANTAB.[36]
The CANTAB PAL touchscreen test, which assessesvisual memory and new learning, was included in a REF submission at the University of Cambridge. This submission (which included research from across the University unrelated to CANTAB PAL) received a 4* grade from theResearch Excellence Framework (REF) 2014.[citation needed] CANTAB and CANTAB PAL were highlighted in the Medical Schools Council ‘Health of the Nation’ 2015 publication.[37]
Robbins is also a co-author of the neurochemicalFunctional Ensemble of Temperament model that mapped the functional roles of brain neurotransmitters to main aspects of behavioural regulation.[38][39]
^abcdefg"Trevor W. Robbins: Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions".The American Psychologist.66 (8):665–8. 2011.doi:10.1037/a0025179.PMID22082379.
^abSahakian, BJ; Morris, RG; Evenden, JL; Heald, A; Levy, R; Philpot, M; Robbins, TW (1988). "A comparative study of visuospatial memory and learning in Alzheimer-type dementia and Parkinson's disease".Brain.111 (3):695–718.doi:10.1093/brain/111.3.695.PMID3382917.
^Everitt, BJ; Robbins, TW (2005). "Neural systems of reinforcement for drug addiction: from actions to habits to compulsion".Nature Neuroscience.8 (11):1481–9.doi:10.1038/nn1579.PMID16251991.S2CID16941967.
