Dave Gallagher is a BPS Chartered Psychologist and Cognitive Scientist with a background in experimental psychology. He is an Honorary Lecturer and Researcher at the University of Lancashire, also involved with the Centre for Mountain Medicine. His research focuses onperformance under extreme stress, including executive function and cognitive flexibility, and how the brain adapts in response, shaping perception and behaviour. This can involve applying experimental methods under challenging conditions in field-based settings, from high-altitude and maritime contexts to ayahuasca retreats in the Amazon.

From a comparative, systems-level perspective, he is interested in the mechanisms underlying adaptive reorganisation in brain function and how this is expressed in cognition and behaviour under cumulative stress. This is relevant to trauma-affected individuals, particularly in specialist populations such as military personnel and elite performers. It includes how interventions that alter functional brain systems - such as psychedelics, or exposure to environmental stressors - may induce adaptive change relevant to recovery from trauma.