I am a PhD student in the Emotional disorders and mental imagery group, jointly supervised by Prof Emily Holmes and Prof Rik Henson.

My PhD seeks to integrate perspectives from both clinical psychology and cognitive neuroscience to elucidate the nature of intrusive emotional memories following psychological trauma. My current research interests also include the development of cognitive-task procedures to disrupt unwanted memories (with Dr Ella James) and their mechanisms of action (with Dr Renee Visser). Additionally, I am involved in clinical research developing imagery-based therapeutics via face-to-face treatment and mobile applications (with Dr Martina Di Simplicio).

Broadly speaking, I am interested in linking cognitive and affective sciences with psychological treatment innovation and health policy. I have acted as editor for a student-led global health policy think-tank (Polygeia, 2015-2016), and was part of the executive committee for the student-led neuroscience society in Cambridge (CamBrain, 2015-2016). I completed my undergraduate degree in Psychology at University College London, working with Prof Gabriella Vigliocco on the interplay between language, cognition and multimodal communication. Subsequently, I worked across different clinical and health settings within the National Health Service in the UK. I am gratefully supported by the Cambridge International Scholarship Scheme.

Publications:

James, E. L., Lau-Zhu, A., Tickle, H., Horsch, A., & Holmes, E. A. (in press) Playing the computer game Tetris prior to viewing traumatic film material and subsequent intrusive memories: examining proactive interference. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry: special issue. doi: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2015.11.004 (view article)

Kamboj, S., Langhoff, C., Pajak, P., Lau-Zhu, A., Chevalier, A., & Watson, S. (2015). A preliminary description of a viscerally-centered phobic syndrome. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 1-16. doi: 10.1017/S1352465813000726 (view article)

Conference presentations:

2015 - Oral presentation: Why do intrusions dissociate from recognition memory? | Trauma Film Paradigm Research Meeting, Cambridge, UK.

2015 - Oral presentation: Disrupting consolidation of intrusive emotional memories with Tetris | Cambridge Memory Meeting, UK.

2015 - Poster: Disrupting intrusions while sparing voluntary memory of experimental trauma: therapeutic promise and theoretical puzzle | British Association of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies Annual Conference, Coventry, UK. (Best Poster Award)

2014 - Poster: Reducing involuntary image-based memories after analogue trauma using visuospatial tasks: Applying ideas from working memory to emotional psychopathology | International Working Memory Meeting, Cambridge, UK.

2012 - Poster: The role of iconicity in language evolution | European Human Behaviour and Evolution Association Annual Conference, Durham, UK.

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To go to the ‘Emotional Disorders and Mental Imagery’ group page click here

For a complete list of Holmes group publications click here