Research

I am a Lecturer in Cognition and NeuroImaging at the Institute of Psychiatry. My research focus is emotion regulation and embodiment in healthy controls and clinical groups where these processes have gone awry. I am also interested in the impact of these processes on empathy and emotion perception.

Part of my research involves working with people who report a condition called Depersonalisation. Sufferers often talk of feeling emotionally numb or detached from their body and/or mental processes.

Another group I work with are people with Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism whereby language ability and intelligence are intact. People with Asperger's Syndrome find some aspects of social perception and empathy difficult.

I work within the framework of Cognitive neuropsychiatry which views psychological and behavioural difficulties as occurring when the usual mental processes and their brain correlates become altered. This can be due to a multitude of factors such as psychological and/or environmental triggers, brain injury, and unusual brain development .