I am a member of the rehabilitation research team in the attention and cognitive control group, where we aim to improve the everyday lives of people who have sustained a brain injury. Whether caused by stroke, tumour, a blow to the head, or some other cause, acquired brain injury (ABI) can profoundly influence cognitive and emotional function, as well as day-to-day function and wellbeing. Given that cognitive impairments can have significant consequences for mood, and vice versa, the starting point of our research is an improved characterisation of attention, memory, and executive function following brain injury, and how each interacts with mood and emotion. These findings are then translated via the development of cognitive training regimes and psychological interventions designed to improve cognitive and/or emotional function in brain injury survivors.

My own work aims to apply models of cognitive and emotion processing and behaviour in individuals with depression but without a brain injury to individuals who have sustained an ABI. One question that interests me is whether the cognitive biases known to play an important role in the development and maintenance of depression in individuals without an ABI play a similar role following brain injury. Other work has been exploring ways of enhancing and sustaining engagement in meaningful everyday activity post brain injury. This has been implemented most recently by PhD student Andrea Kusec in a randomised clinical trial of a group-level behavioural activation intervention in individuals with ABI and low mood or activity levels. Related experimental work has explored whether mental imagery has the potential to enhance anticipated positive emotion when scheduling pleasant everyday activities and whether scaffolding poor sustained attention while engaging in scheduled everyday activities can enhance the positive emotion individuals derive from them.

Our guiding principle is that rehabilitation efforts will be informed through improving our understanding of the above areas and their relationship to day to day goals and any enduring disability.

PUBLICATIONS

Murphy, F.C., Peers, P.V., Blackwell, S.E., Holmes, E.A., & Manly, T. (in press). Anticipated and imagined futures: Prospective cognition and depressed mood following brain injury. British Journal of Clinical Psychology.

Ji, J.L., Holmes, E.A., MacLeod, C. & Murphy, F.C.Peers, P.V., Blackwell, S.E., Holmes, E.A., & Murphy, F.C. (in press). Spontaneous cognition in dysphoria: Reduced positive bias in imagining the future. Psychological Research.

Murphy, F.C. & Sigala, N. (2018). Women scientists in psychology: Gender bias and change. Psychological Review, April, 10-13.

Dunn, B.D., Gadeikis,D., Bos, N., Schweizer, S., & Murphy, F.C. (2017) Engaging in an experiental processing model increases positive emotional response during recall of pleasant autobiographical memories, Behaviour Research and Therapy, 92:68-76.

Murphy, F.C., Bishop, D.V.M. & Sigala, N. (2014). Women scientists in psychology: Time for action. Psychologist, 27, 918-923.

Murphy, F.C., Macpherson, K., Jeyabalasingham, T., Manly, T., Dunn, B. (2013). Modulating mind-wandering in dysphoria. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 888.

Manly, T. & Murphy, F.C. (2012). Rehabilitation of executive function and social cognition impairments after brain injury. Current Opinion in Neurology, 25(6), 656-61.

Murphy, F.C., Michael, A. & Sahakian, B.J. (2012). Emotion modulates cognitive flexibility in patients with major depression. Psychological Medicine, 42(7), 1373-1382.

Murphy F.C., Ewbank M.P. & Calder, A.J. (2012). Emotion and personality factors influence the neural response to emotional stimuli. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 35(3), 156-157.

Croucher, C.J., Calder, A.J., Ramponi, C., Barnard, P.J. & Murphy, F.C. (2011). Disgust enhances the recollection of negative emotional images. PLoS ONE. 6(11): e26571. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0026571.

Barnard P.J., Murphy F.C., Carthery-Goulart M.T., Ramponi C., & Clare L. (2011). Exploring the basis and boundary conditions of SenseCam-facilitated recollection. Memory, 19(7), 758-767.

Murphy F.C., Barnard P.J., Terry K.A.M., Carthery-Goulart M.T., & Holmes E.A. (2011). SenseCam, imagery, and bias in memory for well-being. Memory, 19(7), 768-777.

Barnard P.J., Murphy F.C., Carthery-Goulart M.T., Ramponi C., Nestor P.J., Parkinson C.H., van Paasschen J., & Clare, L. (2010). Can SenseCam promote elaborative processing and recollection in memory-impaired patients? Proceedings of the second annual SenseCam symposium, 7-8.

Murphy F.C., Hill E., Ramponi C., Calder A.J., & Barnard P.J. (2010). Paying attention to emotional images with impact. Emotion, 10(5), 605-614.

Ramponi C., Murphy F.C., Calder A.J., & Barnard P.J. (2010). Recognition for pictorial material in subclinical depression. Acta Psychologica, 135(3), 293-30.

Murphy F.C., Wilde G., Ogden N., Barnard P.J. & Calder A.J. (2009) Assessing the automaticity of moral processing: Efficient coding of moral information during narrative comprehension. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 62(1), 41–49.

Lawrence A.D., Murphy F.C. & Calder A.J. (2004). Dissociating fear and disgust: implications for the structure of emotions. In J. Yiend (Ed.) Cognition, Emotion, and Psychopathology: Theoretical, Empirical and Clinical Directions, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 149–171.

Murphy F.C., Nimmo-Smith I., & Lawrence, A.D. (2003). Functional neuroanatomy of emotions: A meta-analysis. Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience, 3, 207–233.

Murphy, F.C., Michael, A., Robbins, T.W., & Sahakian, B.J (2003) Neuropsychological impairment in patients with major depressive disorder: the effects of feedback on task performance. Psychological Medicine, 33, 455–467.

Hutton S.B., Murphy F.C., Joyce E.M., Rogers R.D., Cuthbert I., Barnes T.R.E., McKenna P.J., Sahakian B.J. & Robbins T.W. (2002). Decision making deficits in patients with first-episode and chronic schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research, 55, 249–257.

Murphy F.C., Smith K.A., Cowen P.J., Robbins T.W. & Sahakian B.J. (2002) The effects of tryptophan depletion on cognitive and affective processing in healthy volunteers. Psychopharmacology, 163, 42–53.

Murphy F.C. & Sahakian B.J. (2001). Neuropsychology of bipolar disorder. British Journal of Psychiatry, 178: s120–s127.

Murphy F.C., Sahakian B.J., Rubinsztein J.S., Michael A., Rogers R.D., Robbins T.W., & Paykel E.S. (2001). Decision-making cognition in mania and depression. Psychological Medicine, 31, 679–693.

Murphy F.C. (2000). The neuropsychology of depression and mania: Cognitive and emotional processes. University of Cambridge. Unpublished thesis.

Murphy F.C., Sahakian B.J., Rubinsztein J.S., Michael A., Rogers R.D., Robbins T.W., & Paykel E.S. (1999). Emotional bias and inhibitory control processes in mania and depression. Psychological Medicine, 29, 1307–1321.

Murphy F.C., Sahakian B.J. & O'Carroll R.E. (1998). Cognitive impairment in depression: psychological models and clinical issues. In D Ebert & KP Ebmeier (Eds.) New Models for Depression, Adv Biol Psychiatry, 19, Basel: Karger, pp. 1–33.

Murphy F.C. & Klein R.M. (1998). The effects of nicotine on spatial and non-spatial expectancies in a covert orienting task. Neuropsychologia, 36, 1103–1114.