Project Summary:

My PhD will explore human decision-making processes and their relationship with the longitudinal monitoring of mood states in naturalistic environments. This will involve the development of a gamified decision-making task within a mobile application that also records ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) of mood states. From this data I will then apply computational modelling techniques with the ultimate goal to identify novel cognitive biomarkers for key symptoms of mood disorders which could be used for understanding treatment targets or as useful treatment response indicators in these conditions. One of the challenging aspects of this project will be the assessment of human decision-making performance which has predominantly been assessed in controlled laboratory environments, and here will be translated into a naturalistic EMA study design. As such, the app development stage will be an iterative process involving a participatory design approach. Furthermore, the inclusion of passive mobile sensor data collection (e.g., GPS/location data) into this study design will also be explored.

General Profile:

After graduating from the University of Nottingham with a first class MSci in Psychology, I completed a mental health placement in Sri Lanka. This involved working in rural areas within both clinical and community settings for children and adults with varied disabilities and mental health needs. After this I then worked in a nursing home for dementia, gaining valuable hands-on experience in caring for the needs of this population. I have a strong interest in mental health research and particularly in preventative care and prodromal symptomology.