Psychology talks and events

Abstract not available

• Speaker: Asifa Majid (U. of Oxford)
• Thursday 08 May 2025, 14:00-15:00
• Venue: MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, 15 Chaucer Road, Cambridge - Lecture Theatre.
• Series: Chaucer Club; organiser: Vicky Collins.

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Abstract not available

• Speaker: Maria Chait (UCL)
• Thursday 01 May 2025, 14:00-15:00
• Venue: MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, 15 Chaucer Road, Cambridge - Lecture Theatre.
• Series: Chaucer Club; organiser: Vicky Collins.

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Historically, the understanding of the brain-based mechanisms of learning in young children has relied on well-controlled lab-based experiments. This was for good scientific reasons. First, there was a drive to isolate individual causes of behaviours and therefore to carefully control the environments in which children behaved during a study.

Moreover, the equipment required to assess the neural correlates of behaviours were cumbersome and difficult to move so children’s mobility had to be restricted. Recent developments in wearable and wifi-enhanced technologies have now allowed us to literally “untether” children and explore their brain and behaviour as they move around and interact naturally. This has opened new avenues for research, but has equally revealed important new challenges to the way that we approach developmental sciences.

In this seminar, I will draw on my lab’s recent work on children’s sensory cue integration, neural synchrony during children’s collaborative problem solving and the trials and tribulations of translating basic cognitive neuroscience research into real-world effective classroom interventions to highlight some of the challenges that contemporary developmental sciences faces.

Speaker bio:

Professor Denis Mareschal is Director of the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, at Birkbeck University of London, and a founding member of the Centre for Educational Neuroscience. After completing a BA in Natural Science at Cambridge, he moved on to studying learning—initially in the form of an MA in Psychology and Artificial Intelligence at McGill in Montreal, Canada and then through completing a DPhil in Psychology at Oxford.

Professor Mareschal’s research has focussed on identifying the mechanisms of learning and development in infancy and childhood through the combined use of behavioural studies, computational modelling and neuroimaging. He has received a number of awards for his work, including the Marr Prize from the Cognitive Science Society, the Young Investigator Award from the International Congress on Infant Studies and the Margaret Donaldson Prize from the BPS Developmental Section.

Over the last 10 years he has led the UnLocke project (Unlocke.org) developing a neuroscience-based primary school maths and science education intervention. He is committed to taking neuroscience out of the lab and into the real-world, in terms of primary research and in terms of translational impact.

In-person: Ground Floor Seminar Room, Old Cavendish Building, Free School Lane / Teams Meeting ID: 336 446 191 696, Passcode: QHt4pm

• Speaker: Professor Denis Mareschal, Birkbeck
• Tuesday 06 May 2025, 16:00-17:00
• Venue: Hybrid: in-person in Cambridge & online via Teams.
• Series: Centre for Child, Adolescent & Family Research Seminar Series; organiser: Louise Gray.

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Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a heterogeneous mental disorder. International guidelines present overall symptom severity as the key dimension for clinical characterisation. However, additional layers of heterogeneity may reside within severity levels related to how symptoms interact with one-another in a patient, called symptom dynamics. We investigate these individual differences by estimating the proportion of patients that display differences in their symptom dynamics while sharing the same diagnosis and overall symptom severity. We show that examining symptom dynamics provides information about the person-specific psychopathological expression of patients beyond severity levels by revealing how symptoms aggravate each other over time. These results suggest that symptom dynamics may serve as a promising new dimension for clinical characterisation. Areas of opportunity are outlined for the field of precision psychiatry in uncovering disorder evolution patterns (e.g., spontaneous recovery; critical worsening) and the identification of granular treatment effects by moving toward investigations that leverage symptom dynamics as their foundation. Future work aimed at investigating the cascading dynamics underlying depression onset and maintenance using the large-scale (N > 5.5 million) CIPA Study are outlined.

• Speaker: Omid Ebrahimi, University of Oxford
• Thursday 08 May 2025, 12:30-13:30
• Venue: Hybrid talk (Herchel Smith Building) and online via zoom.
• Series: Department of Psychiatry & CPFT Thursday Lunchtime Seminar Series; organiser: Oliver Knight.

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In this talk I will describe how real-world datasets comprising insurance claims and electronic health record (EHR) data can be analysed to provide novel insights into the clinical outcomes of people with mental disorders and how the analysis of unstructured, free text clinical assessments using natural language processing (NLP) enables the ascertainment and analysis of rich clinical data that cannot be obtained from structured datasets.

• Speaker: Dr Rashmi Patel, University of Cambridge
• Thursday 22 May 2025, 12:30-13:30
• Venue: Hybrid talk (Herchel Smith Building) and online via zoom.
• Series: Department of Psychiatry & CPFT Thursday Lunchtime Seminar Series; organiser: Oliver Knight.

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Brian Pennie is a former heroin addict turned neuroscientist who’s on a mission to show people that change is possible. Since embracing his second chance at life in 2013, he has become a doctor of neuroscience and psychology, a consultant to some of the world’s largest organisations, and the founder of his company, Change is Possible. www.brianpennie.com

We are not born resilient, nor does it come naturally. Resilience develops through our lived experiences, forged over time by learning how to overcome adversity. But resilience has its limits, even for the grittiest and most dogged of us, because if you take hit after hit, you’ll eventually fall. That’s why we need to move beyond resilience – learning how to use life’s challenges to our advantage and, ultimately, using adversity as our fuel for growth. With a focus on breathwork, movement, and connection, Brian will deliver a series of evidence-based tools to help you transform life’s inevitable challenges into a way to learn and grow.

• Speaker: Dr Brian Pennie, Trinity College Dublin
• Thursday 19 June 2025, 12:30-13:30
• Venue: Online via zoom.
• Series: Department of Psychiatry & CPFT Thursday Lunchtime Seminar Series; organiser: Oliver Knight.

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In this talk I will describe how real-world datasets comprising insurance claims and electronic health record (EHR) data can be analysed to provide novel insights into the clinical outcomes of people with mental disorders and how the analysis of unstructured, free text clinical assessments using natural language processing (NLP) enables the ascertainment and analysis of rich clinical data that cannot be obtained from structured datasets.

• Speaker: Dr Rashmi Patel, University of Cambridge
• Thursday 22 May 2025, 12:30-13:30
• Venue: Online via zoom.
• Series: Department of Psychiatry & CPFT Thursday Lunchtime Seminar Series; organiser: Oliver Knight.

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One of psychiatry’s main difficulties is to articulate the relationship between the wide assortment of factors that may cause or contribute to psychiatric disorders. Such factors range from traumatic experiences to dysfunctional neurotransmitters, existential worries, economic deprivation, social exclusion, and genetic bad luck. While several models, including the biopsychosocial model, advocate an integrative account, they remain vague on how these different factors (causally) interact. By using insights from enactivism and its perspective on the relation between body, mind, and world, we can develop a clear integrative account of the many, heterogenous factors that may play a role in the development and persistence of psychiatric disorders. In this talk, I will present this enactive account of psychiatry and its implications for clinical practice.

• Speaker: Professor Sanneke de Haan, Erasmus School of Philosophy
• Thursday 15 May 2025, 12:30-13:30
• Venue: Online via zoom.
• Series: Department of Psychiatry & CPFT Thursday Lunchtime Seminar Series; organiser: Oliver Knight.

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Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a heterogeneous mental disorder. International guidelines present overall symptom severity as the key dimension for clinical characterisation. However, additional layers of heterogeneity may reside within severity levels related to how symptoms interact with one-another in a patient, called symptom dynamics. We investigate these individual differences by estimating the proportion of patients that display differences in their symptom dynamics while sharing the same diagnosis and overall symptom severity. We show that examining symptom dynamics provides information about the person-specific psychopathological expression of patients beyond severity levels by revealing how symptoms aggravate each other over time. These results suggest that symptom dynamics may serve as a promising new dimension for clinical characterisation. Areas of opportunity are outlined for the field of precision psychiatry in uncovering disorder evolution patterns (e.g., spontaneous recovery; critical worsening) and the identification of granular treatment effects by moving toward investigations that leverage symptom dynamics as their foundation. Future work aimed at investigating the cascading dynamics underlying depression onset and maintenance using the large-scale (N > 5.5 million) CIPA Study are outlined.

• Speaker: Omid Ebrahimi, University of Oxford
• Thursday 08 May 2025, 12:30-13:30
• Venue: Online via zoom.
• Series: Department of Psychiatry & CPFT Thursday Lunchtime Seminar Series; organiser: Oliver Knight.

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Our mental health is just as important as our physical health. In times of stress, enhanced cognition and reserves of resilience are vital in maintaining our wellbeing. This talk will draw on evidence-based ways to improve our brain health, cognition, and overall wellbeing based on Brain Boost: Healthy Habits for a Happier Life. We will explore the benefits of exercise, diet, sleep, social interactions, kindness, mindfulness and learning and how adopting these healthy habits will lead to a longer, happier life and a flourishing society.

• Speaker: Professor Barbara Sahakian & Dr Christelle Langley
• Thursday 12 June 2025, 12:30-13:30
• Venue: Online via zoom.
• Series: Department of Psychiatry & CPFT Thursday Lunchtime Seminar Series; organiser: Oliver Knight.

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Despite considerable optimism regarding the mind-transforming potential of psychedelic substances, recently challengs have been raised regarding the validity of core findings in the field. In this talk I will provide a critical perspective on psychedelic science, questioning the efficacy and safety of psychedelic therapy and its presumed underlying mechanisms. I will argue that these problems are not new and that important lessons can be learned from history. I will conclude by highlighting examples and suggestions for the improvement of the quality of the science in this field.

• Speaker: Michiel van Elk, Leiden University
• Thursday 01 May 2025, 12:30-13:30
• Venue: Online via zoom.
• Series: Department of Psychiatry & CPFT Thursday Lunchtime Seminar Series; organiser: Oliver Knight.

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