Previous Projects
Depression and Alzheimer’s Disease: An Investigation of the Neural and Cognitive Correlates of Depressive Symptoms in Alzheimer’s Disease - MSc
Whilst completing my MSc in Clinical Health Psychology from the University of Strathclyde, I conducted a secondary data analysis exploring the cognitive and neural correlates of depression in early stage Alzheimer’s disease. This was supervised by Dr Will McGeown.
The Effect of Mindfulness Meditation on Time Perception: A Comparison Between ‘Trait Mindfulness’ & ‘State Mindfulness’ - Declan McLaren
T-tests were conducted to compare differences in grey matter volume between depressed and non-depressed AD patients. Regression analysis was also conducted to explore any linear relationships between the severity of depression and grey matter volume. No significant differences were found in cognitive abilities between depressed and age matched non-depressed AD patients. Neuropsychiatric symptoms such as apathy, delusions, anxiety and aberrant motor behaviours were significantly more frequent in depressed patients. Four brain areas in the left hemisphere, the middle frontal gyrus, superior parietal lobule, Supramarginal gyrus and superior frontal gyrus, were found to have significantly lower grey matter volumes in depressed patients, as well as negative correlations between severity of depression and grey matter volume existing in all these areas.No areas were found to have increased volume in depressed patients, and no positive relationships were found. Given that cognitive abilities did not appear hindered despite reductions in grey matter volume, could possibly be explained by postulating that, because the participants in this study are in early-stage AD, depression may exacerbate AD symptoms at a neural level, but at this stage deficiencies are not pronounced enough to be detected by neuropsychological testing. Exploring the differences between the two groups longitudinally would shed light on this postulation. Finally, the increased frequency of neuropsychiatric symptoms in depressed participants suggests that depression may pose as a risk factor for subsequent neuropsychiatric symptoms. However, the directionality of the relationship is unknown.
The Effect of Mindfulness Meditation on Time Perception - BSc(Hons)
Personal interest in mindfulness led me to conduct research exploring the phenomena for my undergraduate dissertation. This study aimed to examine the effect of mindfulness meditation on time perception, with the secondary aim off determining if the effect varies in strength between individuals with high mindful ability and low mindful ability; state vs trait mindfulness.Participants completed a simple reaction time test, before and after completing a mindfulness meditation. Stimuli were initially presented in a consistent pattern for participants to learn. The reaction time test was then repeated with random stimuli being presented a half second, or full second, late. Low frequency heart rate variability was recorded to measure the participants level of arousal, and this was used to identify changes in their perception of time. It was found that participant’s perception of time slowed down following the mindful meditation, however the strength of the effect the meditation had did not vary between individuals with high and low mindful ability.
An Exploration of the Neural and Cognitive Correlates of Depression in Alzheimer’s Disease - Declan McLaren