Research summary
Identifying and validating neurobiology-driven biomarkers to inform early detection and personalised interventions for transdiagnostic precision psychiatry.
Current research interests
My PhD research will focus on the neurobiological basis of altered cognitive states, such as mental fatigue, drowsiness, and brain fog. These symptoms are highly prevalent and clinically important across a range of neuropsychiatric disorders but remain difficult to measure objectively. Recent work has shown that multi-frequency steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs), widely used in brain–computer interface research, can provide sensitive markers of how attention modulates neural responses to external input. This suggests that SSVEPs could potentially be harnessed as biomarkers of internal cognitive state. Building on these insights, I will use a novel mobile multimodal neuroimaging headset integrating EEG (electrical activity), fNIRS (blood oxygenation, similar to fMRI), and eye-tracking to measure brain activity during visual flicker paradigms and higher-order cognitive tasks targeting attention, working memory, and executive function. By assessing these responses longitudinally, under different experimental conditions such as stress or fatigue, and linking them to subjective reports of mental clarity, machine learning approaches will be used to identify consistent neural signatures of altered cognitive states. The ultimate goal is to develop scalable tools that could inform early detection and personalised interventions, with transdiagnostic precision psychiatry applications in conditions like long COVID, burnout, traumatic brain injury, and neurodegenerative disease.
Past research interests
My research training commenced with my MSci degree in Neuroscience, including an industry placement year at P1vital Ltd, a research organisation specialising in digital neuropsychological tasks. This was my first introduction to Precision Medicine through working on the IMI-funded PRISM project, investigating quantitative neurobiological measures for social and cognitive deficits across Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, and depression. After graduating, I worked briefly in business strategy and secondary data studies in healthcare before realising that my true passion remained in mental health and precision neuropsychiatry research. That led me back to P1vital, where I worked on identifying and analysing neuropsychological biomarkers to improve both mechanistic understanding and treatment strategies in over 10 experimental medicine studies across neurodegenerative, mood, and psychotic disorders. I was particularly interested in reward and emotional processing, co-authoring several publications and conference posters in this area.
