The first, led by Drs Paul Anastasiades (Bristol Medical School) and Emma Cahill (Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience), will look at Determining the role of cerebellar-prefrontal circuitry in social behaviours in a preclinical mouse model of autism spectrum disorder. The ability to learn via social cues is fundamental to successfully navigating complex social environments. Disrupted social learning is also one of the hallmarks of autism spectrum disorders, yet the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. This project aims to determine how cellular deficits in a preclinical mouse model of autism contribute to changes in social behaviour and social learning.   

The second project will be led by Seán Froudist-Walsh (Computer Science) alongside collaborators Profs Anissa Abi-Dargham & Mark Slifstein and Dr Jared van Snellenberg (Stony Brook University, USA): Identifying network and neurochemical mechanisms for hallucinations and working memory deficits in schizophrenia using neural network modelling and neuroimaging.  

The debilitating hallucinations and cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia, while usually considered separately, may emerge due to a common mechanism. The student will develop neural network models to investigate shared mechanisms for hallucinations and cognitive symptoms in schizophrenia, test the models on clinical imaging data, and use this computational platform to propose urgently-needed new treatments. 

The recruitment process to fill the studentships is now underway, with expected start dates in January 2023.