Research centres
Centre for Clinical, Social and Cognitive Neuroscience
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    1. People
    2. Research
    3. Research Methods
    4. Publications
    5. Education
    6. Events
    7. Grants
Clinical, Social and Cognitive Neuroscience

Centre for Clinical, Social and Cognitive Neuroscience

We research cognitive and neural mechanisms that underpin mental health, well-being, and psychiatric, neurodevelopmental, and neurological disorders, social and affective interaction, and human cognition. Our Centre is located at the School of Health & Psychological Sciences at City, University of London.

We work across different fields including social, clinical and cognitive neuroscience, developmental, mathematical and social psychology. Our research ranges from basic and experimental to highly applied and seeks to increase knowledge on the neurobiological systems that underpin a wide range of human experience.

Our research is:

  • Basic:
    • understanding the fundamental mechanisms of (social) cognition (e.g., perception, attention, memory, somatosensory processing, emotion and face recognition), social emotions and biases and their link to social behaviour and decision making.
    • contributing to the development of mathematical and computational models in psychology and cognitive neuroscience.
  • Developmental:
    • understanding the development of language, (social) cognition, emotions, memory and social behaviour across the life span.
  • Clinical:
    • understanding impairments in (social) cognition in psychiatric, neurodevelopmental and neurological disorders, such as schizophrenia, autism, Williams syndrome and Prosopagnosia and in individuals who experience other forms psychological distress.
  • Translational:
    • bridging different theoretical and methodological approaches such as mindfulness-based therapy and neuroscience or the application of our findings in law and education.

Our members use a wide range of research methods, including neuropsychology and experimental psychology, neuroeconomics, experience sampling, psychophysics, structural and functional MRI, EEG and TMS, computational modelling and machine learning.

Focused research on the underlying mechanisms of cognitive and social processes is necessary to guide innovative and effective evidence-based solutions and interventions that address real-life challenges. Our Centre aims to ultimately bring benefits to the wider society and serves the general population and users of clinical services, for example, by improving our understanding, general provision and treatments that affect the functionality and wellbeing of individuals with lived experience of poor mental health.

We collaborate with academic partners in leading universities in the UK and internationally, charities (e.g., Mind, Autistica) and NHS Trusts.

Our CCSCN experts lead a unique MSc in Cognitive, Social and Clinical Neuroscience and teach relevant modules in the BSc in Psychology.