Professor Andrew Scholey

Professor

School: Psychology

Andrew is a Professor of Human Psychopharmacology and Vice Chancellor Fellow in the Department of Psychology. He rejoined Northumbria University in 2025 following seventeen years in Melbourne, Australia where he was director of the Centre for Human Psychopharmacology at Swinburne University. He holds Adjunct Research Professor positions at Monash and Swinburne Universities in Australia.

Following a degree in Psychology from Plymouth University, Andrew completed his PhD and a postdoc at the Brain and Behaviour Research Centre, Open University before his first stint at Northumbria during which he established the Human Cognitive Neuroscience Unit (now the Brain Performance and Nutrition Research Centre).

Andrew has been awarded over 14 million pounds in government and industry research funding. He has authored more than 300 peer-reviewed journal articles with a total of >15,000 citations. The Stanford/Elsevier Scientist Rankings place him in the top 1% of scientists globally based on citations and academic impact.

He has been an invited speaker at numerous conferences/academic institutions including: Royal Society of Medicine (UK), Linus Pauling Institute (US), Max Planck Institute (Germany), Harvard Medical School (US), American Nutrition Society, American Chemical Society, Nutrition Society (UK), Experimental Psychology Society (UK), Nutrition Society of Australia. Andrew is also committed to the public dissemination of science, has given many public lectures, and appeared in traditional/social media and podcasts.

Andrew was an advisor to the UK Parliamentary Forum on Diet and Health and to the Canadian Ministry of Health. He was on the Australian Research Council Engagement and Impact assessment panel (Health and Life Sciences) and their Medical Research Advisory Group. He has several editoral roles including as Speciality Chief Editor for Frontiers in Psychology, Nutrition and Brain Health.

In his roles as Expert Advisor/ Key Opinion Leader, Andrew has worked closely with numerous UK, European, North American and Asia-Pacific industry partners, ranging from start-ups to global Fortune 500 companies. This work aims to translate research findings into evidence-based benefits for brain and mental health.

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Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

Andrew is interested various aspects of Human Psychopharmacology including:

Brain and behavioural effects of ‘nutra’ interventions (nutrition, nutrients, nutraceuticals, nootropics and whole dietary patterns).
Functional effects of alcohol hangover.
Understanding the mechanisms underlying acute and chronic cognitive enhancement and impairment using neuroimaging and biomarker measurement.
Development and application of evidence-based interventions to optimise cognitive performance and mental health, and reduce the risk of cognitive decline and dementia (including with industry partners).

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Development of a checklist for cognitive assessment requirements (CARE) based on a Delphi consensus study, Nejati, V., Estaji, R., Balanzá-Martínez, V., Balota, D., Barker-Collo, S., Bell, M., Berry, J., Borhani, K., Cullum, M., Feinstein, A., Golden, C., Gonzalez, R., Grafman, J., Hollon, S., Jansen, P., Kochan, N., Van Patten, R., Piguet, O., Raskin, S., Rourke, S., Scholey, A., Stern, Y., Woods, S., Posner, M. 24 Jan 2025, In: Scientific Reports
Homocysteine Modulates Brain Functional Connectivity in a Memory Retrieval Task, Silberstein, R., Pipingas, A., Scholey, A. 25 Oct 2022, In: Journal of Alzheimer's Disease
Alcohol hangover versus dehydration revisited: The effect of drinking water to prevent or alleviate the alcohol hangover, Mackus, M., Stock, A., Garssen, J., Scholey, A., Verster, J. 1 Dec 2024, In: Alcohol
Nutrients for neurocognition in health and disease: Measures, methodologies and mechanisms, Scholey, A. 1 Feb 2018, In: Proceedings of the Nutrition Society
Assessing the association between the Mediterranean, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension and Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay dietary patterns, structural connectivity and cognitive function, Arnoldy, L., Gauci, S., Young, L., Macpherson, H., Civier, O., Scholey, A., Pipingas, A., White, D. 14 Apr 2025, In: British Journal of Nutrition

Professional Activity

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Oral presentation: The effect of glycaemic index of breakfast cereal on children's cognitive performance 2005