Internal speaker: Zola Mannie, Middlesex University

Date and time: Thursday, January 29, 4:00pm, room V101.

Title: “Vulnerability to depression"

Abstract:
Depression is a common and disabling disorder, with a particularly high illness burden, a long term trajectory, characterised by increased relapse rates and a poor prognosis. It is often triggered by stress, although the role of stress diminishes with increasing number of episodes, suggesting that the impact of stress on depression is strongest prior to the first episode. Several changes occurring at the same time lead to a weakening of the influence of stress on subsequent episodes include brain sensitization, personality changes or changes in cognitive schema/belief structure that may coincide with higher circulating cortisol or reductions in BDNF due to stress. Research priorities for the prevention of depression include developing interventions that are based on the causal mechanisms of the illness. However, causal mechanisms are not clear, but through vulnerability research there are grounds to be optimistic. In this talk, I will present a broad overview of how I have been investigating vulnerability and the way forward.

Bio:
While pursuing a Masters in Applied Psychology at Brunel University I came to the realisation that it’s through conducting research, rather than clinical practice, would I be able to gain a more in-depth understanding of the various explanations of the aetiology of depression. I subsequently pursued a PhD at Oxford Brookes University in collaboration with the Department of Psychiatry, Oxford University, under Professor Cowen’s supervision, followed by a consolidating post-doctoral program within the department. My thesis was “Vulnerability to Depression: Neurobiological and Psychosocial Trait Markers of Depression”. My primary goal is to continue conducting research aimed at identifying vulnerability markers of depression that can be targeted for the prevention of its onset, and testing the effectiveness of appropriate interventions on those identified markers. My methods of investigation are cross-sectional and prospective by design, and I use various tools including biological sampling e.g. cortisol and BDNF measurement from blood and saliva samples, neuropsychological testing, various behavioural measures and neuroimaging techniques.

Website:
http://www.mdx.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/staff-directory/mannie-zola

Department of Psychology involvement in Japanese legislation on surrogacy

On Wednesday 14 January 2015, Assistant Professor Yuri Hibino http://ridb.kanazawa-u.ac.jp/public/detail_en.php?id=3055 visited Professor Olga van den Akker in the Department of Psychology at Middlesex University to discuss her work on surrogate motherhood. Dr Yuri Hibino from the Department of Environmental and Preventive Medicine Graduate School of Medical Science, Kanazawa University Japan, is a medical sociologist investigating issues surrounding international surrogacy. Her report, which will include discussions of meetings with, and publications from researchers from across the world, will be presented to the Japanese government, with a view to assisting them in their future legislation on surrogacy.

Visiting speaker: Peter Hegarty, University of Surrey

Date and time: Thursday Jan 15, 12pm

Room: HG09

Title: On the failure to develop the hypothesis that White people are White.

Abstract:  Category norms are implicit default assumptions about members of categories that rarely capture attention such as the assumption that humans have one and only one head.  Unfortunately the identities of higher status groups, such as men, White people, the rich, and heterosexuals often stand in as category norms in our thinking.  In this talk I will first review a body of work on how category norms affect explanations of group differences.   Next I will present new work showing how category norms can inhibit the generation of hypotheses from data.  I will conclude with consideration of what we should and shouldn't do manage the effects of implicit norms on our scientific data about real social groups.

Visiting speaker: Marinus van IJzendoorn, Leiden University

Title: Prenatal parenting, newborn methylation and child development

Speaker: Marinus H. van IJzendoorn

Time and Location: Friday, Dec 12, 12:00pm, Committee Room 3 (Town Hall).

Abstract:

“Prenatal parenting” seems a contradictio in terminis. In humans however parenting starts way before child birth. Intra-uterine conditions are crucial for the development of the fetus and determine whether the newborn experiences a head start or is already delayed in its neurobiological and psychological development.  This is not unlike pre-birth development in rodents as Michael Meaney and his team have documented in detail. Quite some evidence shows that prenatal conditions indeed are associated with later psychosocial and cognitive development.

But how prenatal parenting  --for better and for worse—affects the child’s  development after birth still is a puzzle to be solved.  Epigenetic changes, in particular changes in methylation might be an important piece of this puzzle. The Dutch Hunger Winter Study provided some insight in the profound epigenetic programming taking place in the first trimester after conception when conception took place in the most severe period of famine. In Generation R, a cohort study following 10,000 Rotterdam families from mother’s pregnancy into child’s puberty, we measured several prenatal maternal behaviors, problems and stress factors that might influence methylation patterns assessed in cord blood of the newborn. Epigenome-wide analyses as well as analyses targeting candidate loci may shed some light on prenatal parenting leaving its marks on the neurobiology of the newborn.

Bio:

My primary research focus has been parenting and its influence on children’s development. In the genomic era when many question whether parenting really matters at all, I have shown that family matters indeedusing not only observational and neurobiological methods, but also experimental parent-training and interventions, as well as meta-analyses that generated new ideas. For example, the Leiden team was the first to demonstrate genetic differential susceptibility in a longitudinal study on parenting and externalizing symptoms (Developmental Psychobiology, 2006), which revived the theory of differential susceptibility making it one of the most innovative and fruitful paradigms in developmental psychology and psychopathology worldwide. Moreover, we were the first to experimentally test the theory of differential susceptibility with a focus on temperamental and genetic factors,  extending GxE research to the study of parenting, discovering that contextual factors influence some parents more than others, in a for-better-and-for-worse fashion, depending on their genetic make up (Genes, Brain and Behavior, 2008). Several meta-analyses supported the role of candidate genes as markers of differential susceptibility, emphasizing the interplay of genes and environment in shaping child development. My most important challenge for the near future is experimental work showing susceptibility to the environment, for better and for worse, within the same individual, taking a broader (epi-)genetic perspective and studying mediating mechanisms of differential susceptibility. 

http://www.marinusvanijzendoorn.nl/

http://www.socialsciences.leiden.edu/educationandchildstudies/childandfamilystudies/organisation/staffcfs/van-ijzendoorn.html

Visiting speaker: Denis O'Hora, NUI Galway

Title: Can how we choose tell us about why we choose?

Speaker: Denis O'Hora, NUI Galway

Time and Location: Thursday, Nov 20, 4:00pm, room VG02.

Dr O'Hora will outline recent research on the action dynamics of choice and decision-making. When cognitive processes occur alongside observable actions, it is possible for characteristics of these processes to influence the ongoing performance of those actions.  That is, cognitive processes may 'leak' into motor processes. Anecdotally, negotiators and poker players claim to be attuned to ‘tells,' early behavioural indicators of eventual decisions. Going beyond intuitions, however, several researchers have exploited fine-grained measures of behaviour to highlight the effects of online cognitive processing. In Dr O'Hora's research, participants make simple choices using a computer mouse, which provides a rich semi-continuous stream of action information. By tracking 'how' participants make their decisions, it is possible to infer characteristics of participants' evaluations of the alternatives available to them.  He will summarise recent findings from his laboratory and some of the novel analytic techniques that he and his collaborators have developed.

Bio:
Denis O’Hora graduated from University College Cork in 1998. He began his postgraduate work at UCC before moving to the National University of Ireland Maynooth in 1999 to complete his studies with the support of a Government of Ireland Scholarship. In 2002, he took up a lecturing post in London Metropolitan University where he worked for a year before being appointed as a lecturer in behaviour analysis at the University of Ulster. During his time at UU, he was part of the course team that developed the first Masters in Applied Behaviour Analysis on the island of Ireland, which was supported by an International Development grant from the Society for the Advancement of Behaviour Analysis (SABA). He was also awarded a Crucible fellowship by NESTA, the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, for his work promoting psychology. He was appointed to his post in the National University of Ireland, Galway in January, 2007. He is a Chartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow in the British Psychological Society (BPS)

Visiting speaker: Mark Gardner, University of Westminster

Title: Spatial perspective-taking, embodiment, and executive functions

Date, time, and venue: Thursday, Nov 6, 4:00pm, room VG02

Abstract:
My talk considers the cognitive processes involved when taking on the spatial-perspective of another person – an ability that might be employed when giving directions or providing a demonstration of how to do a task. Specifically, we will consider whether spatial perspective-taking relies on an embodied mechanism of imagined self-rotation.  Or, alternatively, whether it is mediated by executive processes that are domain general (inhibition of own perspective responses). The results of a series of eight experiments employing a simple test of perspective-taking will be described which appear to indicate that spatial perspective-taking can be both embodied and reliant on executive functions, but that the route to perspective-taking depends upon participant strategy.

Bio:
Mark Gardner was trained at University College London in the last millennium.  His PhD research examined imitation in animals, while his postdoc assessed the role of attention in normal and abnormal balance system function.  Mark has worked at the University of Westminster since 2000, where he is now Principal Lecturer in Psychology, and course leader for BSc Psychology.  He also serves on the BPS Undergraduate Education Committee.  When he is not doing admin, Mark loves doing research.  As well as spatial perspective-taking, he is also investigating the effects of water consumption on cognitive performance.

Mark's webpage:
http://www.westminster.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/directory/gardner-dr-mark

Successful joint bid from Forensic Psychological Services and the Centre for Abuse and Trauma Studies

We are delighted to report that a joint bid from Forensic Psychological Services and the Centre for Abuse and Trauma Studies has been successful. The project is for 9 months for 75K and is a quantitative and qualitative examination of the impact of legal pornography on the values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviour of children and young people. The Co-Principle Investigators on the project are Miranda Horvath and Elena Martellozzo and the Co-Investigators are Joanna Adler and Julia Davidson.