Talks held to launch Centre for Psychological Wellbeing and Neuroscience
Experts from City discuss research into new mental health therapies
Psychologists from City University London discussed 
their
work into mindfulness treatments and behavioural therapies at the launch of a
new research centre.
Academics, health practitioners and teachers came together
for a day of talks, organised by City’s Department of Psychology to introduce
the Centre for Psychological Wellbeing and Neuroscience.
City researchers were joined by guest speakers from local
and national organisations that are working to promote treatments for people
suffering with mental health or neurological conditions.
It comes ahead of the start a new Masters programme – Clinical, Social and Cognitive Neuroscience MSc – which will welcome its first cohort of students in September 2015.
Professor Tina Forster, who has embarked on cutting-edge
research in the emerging 
field of clinical neuroscience, explained the results
of a study into how mindfulness practices affect the brain.
In her research, with Hana Villar of City and Hackney Mind, Professor Forster found that during an eight-week programme individuals saw
their body awareness increase as the study progressed.
The changes were observed through increases in brain activity,
which was recorded by electroencephalograms
(EEGs) during tasks that required participants to count touches
they felt on their hands.
Professor Forster, who is one of three co-founders of the
new centre, said: “There seems to be this change happening with how we process
information, so it might give us an early marker of what mindfulness does and
how it changes attention.”
Dr Katy Tapper discussed her research into the ways
mindfulness can be 
used to improve healthy eating and help with weight loss.
According to the psychologist, the results of her work were
“promising” but she stressed more research needed to be carried out into the
concept, as the field is still in its infancy.
She explained that small calorie reductions were seen in
tests involving two different approaches to mindfulness – focusing on the
sensory properties of food while eating, and “dencentering”, or seeing oneself
as separate from one’s thoughts.
The event also saw Dr Angeliki Bogosian discuss the outcomes
of her researc
h into how mindfulness can improve the mental health symptoms of multiple
sclerosis (MS), such as anxiety and depression.
She explained that participants in her study, who took part
in weekly mindfulness sessions using Skype as well as daily private practice,
reported reductions in their symptoms.
Dr Bogosian added she hoped to carry out similar research
into whether the techniques can help people with Parkinson’s disease.
Also speaking at the conference was Dr David Cox, Chief Medical
Officer at meditation software business Headspace, which is one of the partners
of the Centre for Psychological Wellbeing and Neuroscience, alongside City and Hackney Mind.
He explained his company, which creates apps for mobile
phones, was working with researchers and universities to provide tools and data
on the effects of meditation to help devel
op research into the field.
Speaker later in
the afternoon, Dr Paul Flaxman, Senior Lecturer in Organisational Psychology at
City, spoke about Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) – a form of behaviour
therapy – for resilience in the workplace.
In particular, when
talking about defusion strategies he noted how experiencing thoughts in a voice
of a cartoon or film character – or even assigning it to a familiar tune –
could be beneficial.
Following on from
this, Dr Corinna Haenschel, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, talked about working
memory in people with psychosis, touching on how 
impaired visual working memory
(WM) is present in people with schizophrenia, and also how this can be a predictor
of a poor quality of life.
Using electroencephalograms (EEGs) to identify the precise timing
and coordination of activity relating to working memory across different areas
of the brain, Dr Haenschel used the analogy of an out of time orchestra with no
conductor when describing the issues that poor WM can cause.
As a result, her
work suggests that improving WM will not only benefit many aspects of everyday
life for people with psychosis but also potentially reduce medication and the
likelihood of relapse.
Concluding the last
tranche of talks, following a keynote address from Claire 
Kelly, Director of
the Mindfulness in Schools Project, Dr Sebastian Gaigg, Senior Lecturer in
Psychology, spoke about whether mindfulness reduce can anxiety in individuals
with autism.
Other afternoon
speakers spoke about their own experiences of mindfulness, with Andy Phee, a
former mental health nurse and mindfulness teacher working in North London,
talking about mindfulness for psychosis, paranoia and voice hearers.
The event took place on Friday 12th June.