Nicole’s research programme aims to identify how and why individual factors (particularly sex) and different environmental conditions (social interactions, access to shelter, food) contribute to neuropsychiatric disease and treatment effectiveness by focusing on specific phenotypes relating to sleep-wake patterns, social interactions, and cognition across species. Previously, Nicole has studied the importance of female physiology in sleep and cognition in rats, mice, marmosets, and humans. She uses multiple approaches, including behavioural methods (including assessment of cognitive function), neuroimaging (MRI & microscopy), sleep physiology, surgical techniques, hormone quantification, and pharmacological manipulations.