Still recruiting for our CARE Study!

We are running a study aiming to improve our understanding of attribution by investigating the processes involved in learning and decision-making in people with depression, funded by an ESRC grant.

Depression is one of the most prevalent mental health conditions, affecting more than 300 million people worldwide. Despite moderately effective treatments, around 30% of patients remain depressed after trying several types of treatment. This means that we need to understand more about depression in order be more informed about which treatments are likely to work.

We are looking for participants who are currently experiencing a depressive episode OR who are currently in remission from depression to take part in our research.

What will the study involve?

This study involves an interview about mental health symptoms, questionnaires and playing two computerised tasks.

The study involves two sessions:

• Session one (interview & questionnaires) takes place at the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience or online via Microsoft Teams. It will take around 1h and will determine your suitability for the study.

• Session two (cognitive tasks) will take place at home and will take around 1hr 30.

You will be reimbursed £9 per hour in amazon vouchers for your time after completing the final visit. There is also the chance to win up to £3 extra in bonus payments based on task performance.

Read more about the study and how to participate in the CARE Study page.

fMRI study on learning and metacognition

Take part in our fMRI study investigating decision making and get paid £20 - £25 cash!

The total experiment lasts around 2hr 30. Email us at sidaruslab@gmail.com if you are interested in taking part.

About the study

You will complete a number of computerised tasks, which will be explained to you fully before starting. During the tasks, you will be asked to make decisions about abstract shapes, patches with dots, or colours. Some decisions you will make under the prospect of gaining money or losing it, other decisions might simply require you to answer correctly. In addition, you will be asked to complete some questionnaires about your mood, personality and symptoms of mental health problems. The study will take place at the RHUL fMRI scanning centre, CUBIC, and the scan session will take about 1h30m, plus time for questionnaires.

Eligibility Requirements

We are looking for healthy, fluent English speaking, 18-60 year-olds, with no history of head trauma or neurological disorders, or any other physical health condition likely to influence cognitive ability, and who are eligible for fMRI scanning (you will have a telephone screening to check eligibility). To take part, you must have not used cannabis in the past 31 days; have not drank alcohol 24 hours before the study; and must not have used any other recreational drugs in the week prior to your participation

Where can I get more information?

The full fMRI eligibility requirements can be found here:

cubic_initial_screening_form

.pdf

Download PDF • 159KB

More detailed information can be found on our Participant Information Sheet:

01_CAMCODEP_fMRI_Information&ConsentForm

.pdf

Download PDF • 563KB

To take part:

Please email sidaruslab@gmail.com if you are interested in taking part.

On the day

You will be asked to wear clothes without metal attached and to provide your GP details

Study approved by ethics number 3199.

Computations of agency and metacognition in mental health workshop

We are excited to announce our in-person workshop taking place at the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience. This ESRC funded workshop will bring together researchers from both computational and mental health fields and aims to generate discussion surrounding metacognition, agency, decision-making and learning within mental health.

More details and registration for in-person or virtual attendance at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/computations-of-agency-and-metacognition-in-mental-health-workshop-tickets-327953667247