Carlos Mena

Carlos became interested in mental health during his undergraduate in Psychology, where he became fascinated by the behavioural models for depression and anxiety disorders, and how they could inform psychological treatments. This interest led him to pursue a career as a clinical psychologist with a keen interest in emotional disorders and evidence-based practice. During this time, he also contributed translating documents and evidence-based tools to assist Spanish-speaking therapists to conduct more effective therapy.

While working as a clinician, however, Carlos realised how limited and disconnected our current understanding of mental disorders is. Seeing first-hand how often treatments failed to deliver on their promises, he decided to change gears and start a research-focused career in cognitive neuroscience.

In 2018, Carlos finished an MSc in Human Cognitive Neuropsychology at the University of Edinburgh, where he used electrophysiological methods to study selective attention. After graduation, he went on to work as a research assistant at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, where he used dMRI to study anatomical connectivity in patients with first-episode psychosis. 

After his different experiences, Carlos is convinced of the importance of achieving an integrated understanding of mental disorders. During the rotation year of his PhD, he decided to focus on acquiring different skills in computational and statistical methods that he believes will help him integrating different levels of explanation into his future research.