Hanna is a PhD candidate in Psychiatry at the University of Melbourne, focusing on understanding lifestyle correlates of cognitive function in bipolar disorder. She earned a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Neuroscience from the University of Otago, New Zealand, in 2021, where she received the Leaders of Tomorrow Entrance Scholarship with high distinction in 2018 and a Summer Research Scholarship in 2020.

Hanna’s work in her Honours year examined male sexual behaviour, specifically the Coolidge effect in fadrozole-treated male rats, resulting in the publication of her novel findings. Post-Honours, she worked as a research assistant, investigating multiple orgasms in men. Her work in this is currently in press for publication. Additionally, Hanna served as a clinical coder at Dunedin Public Hospital for two years.

Conducting research and working in public health kindled her passion for understanding human emotion and cognition. This, combined with her strong analytical skills, drives her interest for advanced research in mental health. Her current work aims to examine the association of modifiable external factors, such as diet and oral health, with cognition and brain structure in people with bipolar disorder and related psychiatric disorders.

Bipolar disorder (BD) causes extreme mood swings, ranging from emotional highs to deep lows. Many people with BD struggle with brain function, facing challenges with memory, attention, self-control, and decision-making. These difficulties often disrupt daily life and reduce quality of life, but researchers still do not fully understand their causes.

In people without mental illness, diet and oral health influence brain function and thinking skills through the “gut-brain axis,” a connection between the digestive system and the brain driven by biological and chemical signals. People with BD often have poor dental health and unhealthy diets. However, how these factors affect brain function and structure in BD remains unclear.

To address this, we will analyse data from the UK Biobank, a large health database, to investigate whether diet and oral health connect to brain function and structure in people with BD and related psychiatric conditions. We expect to find that unhealthy diets, higher inflammation levels, and poor dental health contribute to poorer brain function and structure in people with BD and related psychiatric conditions.

This research anticipates significant outcomes. In the short term, it can justify clinical trials that aim to improve brain function by targeting modifiable lifestyle factors such as diet, oral health, and related biological markers. In the long term, it can contribute to new approaches for managing brain impairments—like healthier eating habits and better oral care—to maintain brain function and structure in people with BD and related psychiatric conditions.