NIHRDataInsights/HRCSData huggingface dataset:
Title: To disclose or not disclose? An exploratory study into the experiences of disclosing a history of problematic drug use and its impact on the recovery journey
Funder: The British Academy

Abstract: Not much is known about how people in recovery from problematic drug use navigate, respond to, and are affected by situations in which they decide to disclose or avoid disclosing their stigmatised identity and history to others in the areas of life (employment, education, housing, social relationships) that support long-term recovery. To fill this gap in knowledge, twenty-five people in different stages of recovery will participate in semi-structured interviews about their disclosure experiences. The project will contribute important empirical and theoretical insights on the experiences of disclosing a history of problematic drug use to current debates on recovery and inform how drug treatment and recovery professionals prepare and support people in recovery for situations where disclosure decisions might arise. The proposal asks for financial support for two areas of this project: (1) transcription costs and compensation for participation in research, and (2) a podcast series on disclosures in recovery.


Research activity codes: 7.1 INDIVIDUAL CARE NEEDS
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;DISPUTED AETIOLOGY AND OTHER
Title: Racialised Discrimination, Body Image, and Disordered Eating: A Multi-Disciplinary Investigation in South Asian Women in the UK.
Funder: The British Academy

Abstract: Racism and colourism – related forms of racialised discrimination based on race and skin shade respectively – are associated with body image concerns and disordered eating among South Asian women, yet little work has been done to understand these issues, particularly in a UK context. We aim to address this gap by fully situating South Asian women’s body image and eating concerns within a sociocultural context that shapes lived experiences in the UK. Through in-depth interviews with South Asian women, we will explore how racism and colourism manifest in their lives and how and why such experiences affect their relationships with their bodies. Based on these findings, we will develop a theoretical model that connects racialised discrimination with body image and disordered eating, which we will test in a large sample of South Asian women. Findings will inform the development of culturally sensitive eating disorder prevention programmes and clinical practice.


Research activity codes: 1.2 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC PROCESSES;2.3 PSYCHOLOGICAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FACTORS
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;DISPUTED AETIOLOGY AND OTHER
Title: Hostile environments? Exploring gender and class in relation to sexual violence
Funder: The British Academy

Abstract: This research project addresses the knowledge gap that exists regarding working class women’s experiences of sexual violence. The aim of the project is to explore how sexual violence is understood and experienced by victim-survivors at the intersection of gender and class. In doing so, we will develop a more nuanced picture of how social class intersects with, and is modified by, gender inequality in relation to sexual violence. To recognise violence as gendered is to enable a mobilisation of people to challenge violence against women; however, we must also retain a class focus as, for example, being considered as a ‘credible complainer’ is a deeply classed notion rooted in the notion of respectability (Phipps 2009). In this study, we will speak to women about their experiences, including if they have disclosed their experiences and the nature of responses, to better understand the nexus between gender, class and sexual violence.


Research activity codes: 2.3 PSYCHOLOGICAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FACTORS;7.1 INDIVIDUAL CARE NEEDS
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;DISPUTED AETIOLOGY AND OTHER
Title: Understanding the pathogenesis of autonomic dysfunction in chronic fatigue syndrome and its relationship with cognitive impairment
Funder: Medical Research Council

Abstract: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) is a debilitating disease that can affect all ages and profoundly influences a sufferer's ability to function. Despite its impact, the cause of CFS remains unknown and there are no effective treatments. One consistent theme in the CFS literature is of compromise of the autonomic nervous system which has led to the concept that abnormality of regulation of the autonomic nervous system (autonomic dysfunction (AD)) underpins the pathogenesis and/or clinical expression of CFS. AD has been associated with cognitive impairment and risk of cognitive decline in non-CFS groups. Defining the pathogenesis of AD and its relationship with cognitive impairment would be of immense value for both the study of the pathogenesis and treatment of CFS, and the clinical management of fatigued patients. Hypothesis Autonomic dysfunction in CFS arises dues to combination of central ('upstream') and peripheral ('downstream') abnormalities in blood pressure regulation. This ledas to symptoms of brain hypoperfusion which is a cause of cognitive dysfunction. The aim of this study is to define the underlying physiological abnormalities that lead to autonomic dysfunction in CFS and its relationship with cognitive impairment. . Methodology Pathogenesis of AD will be determined using novel state of the art MR technologies developed for this application in CFS patients with an autonomic phenotype (with newly diagnosed and established disease) compared to CFS without autonomic phenotype and sedentary controls. The relationship between AD and cognitive impairment will be explored in a proof of concept intervention study and data modelled using a systems approach. Deliverables Having a comprehensive understanding of the pathogenesis of AD in CFS and its relationship with cognitive impairment will lead to targeted clinical trials that will improve autonomic symptoms, enhance functional ability and reduce cognitive impairment.


Research activity codes: 2.1 BIOLOGICAL AND ENDOGENOUS FACTORS
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;DISPUTED AETIOLOGY AND OTHER
Title: Brain effects of lurasidone: a cross-over randomised controlled single-dose study in young adults.
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: The goal of this application is to investigate what makes some children more irritable than others and examine why children with severe irritability are at higher risk ofdeveloping depression. I will work on a UK twin sample (N=2232) and a US-based epidemiologic cohort (N=1420), spanning the age range from 5-21 years, using a three-pronged approach. Firstly, I will use twin modelling and a discordant monozygotic twin design to partition the genetic and environmental contributions to children's irritability. This will also allow me to investigate the genetic and environmental factors that make irritable children more likely to suffer from depression.


Research activity codes: 2.3 PSYCHOLOGICAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FACTORS;2.1 BIOLOGICAL AND ENDOGENOUS FACTORS
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;DISPUTED AETIOLOGY AND OTHER
Title: The developmental psychopathology of irritable mood and its links to depression: genetic and environmental risks, neuropsychological mechanisms, and hormonal influences.
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: This research proposal seeks to investigate what places children at higher risk of becoming severely irritable and examine why children with severe irritability are at higher risk of developing depression. I will use two samples that provide rich follow up information on the risks and problems that young people (aged 5 - 21 years) and their families face and how this affects their future quality of life and achievement. In a sample of twins, I will be able to test whether genetic ( nature ) or environmental ( nurture ) factors influence children s irritability and their risk of becoming depressed. Also, I will use data from a psychological task that assesses children s ability to read and interpret emotions from people s faces. This will help me understand the relationship between problems with processing emotions, children s irritability and their risk of becoming depressed. In data from a large US-based sample, I will test whether biological changes (such as the rise in particul ar hormones during puberty) or events (such as peer pressures or exposure to sexual experiences) are important in shaping irritable mood and its relationship with depression. If funded, this work could provide important clues on how to help children with severe irritability and their families.


Research activity codes: 2.3 PSYCHOLOGICAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FACTORS;2.1 BIOLOGICAL AND ENDOGENOUS FACTORS
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;DISPUTED AETIOLOGY AND OTHER
Title: Bespoke methods for improving speech perception by cochlear implant users
Funder: Action on Hearing Loss

Abstract: A large research effort has been devoted to improving speech perception by cochlear implant (CI) users. Unfortunately, there is little evidence that any of the techniques tried so far have provided a consistent and substantial improvement in outcomes. Substantial and significant improvements are sometimes observed for individual users, but significant decrements are also observed, leading to little or no overall benefit. The proposed experiments have two goals. The first is to use supra-threshold psychophysical measures to guide the choice of which electrodes to stimulate using a focussed (tripolar) mode of stimulation, and, in separate experiments, which to turn off. In the latter case the psychophysical measures (discrimination of changes in high pulse rates, and the effect of stimulus polarity on thresholds) are used as estimates of local neural survival. The second aim is to evaluate two “non-speech” tests that require listeners to perform spectro-temporal comparisons, using a simple odd-man-out task. Such tests have several advantages over speech tests for evaluating new strategies, most notably that listeners do not have to spend weeks or months learning the representation of speech segments produced by a new strategy. We will test whether these non-speech tests allow the clinician to predict whether a given change in strategy will help or hinder speech perception for an individual listener. If so this could provide a fast and efficient way of improving speech perception on a patient-by-patient basis.


Research activity codes: 1.1 NORMAL BIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTIONING;1.2 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC PROCESSES
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;EAR
Title: The effect of cochlear-implant dynamic-range compression, reverberation and head movement on monaural sound segregation
Funder: Action on Hearing Loss

Abstract: Although many cochlear implant (CI) users understand speech well in quiet, performance is severely degraded in the presence of competing sounds (Skinner et al., 1994; Stickney et al., 2004). One cue that could be used in source segregation and potentially be preserved by CIs comes from differences in level: unlike pitch, for example, there are no qualitative differences between the ways that level is encoded in CIs and normal-hearing (NH). In real-life situations such cues may be degraded by a combination of the high compression ratio (12:1; Boyle et al, 2009) of CI AGCs, room reverberation (Lavandier and Culling, 2008), and extraneous level differences caused by head movements. This study will address the following questions: what size of level cues are necessary for sound segregation by CI listeners, when the AGC is bypassed and sounds are presented in the absence of reverberation?; to what extent are these cues degraded by the AGC and by room reverberation and do head movements introduce extraneous level differences at CI output; and to what extent do listeners compensate for level differences introduced by their head movements? The studies will use computer models of room reverberation, head-related impulse responses, and cochlear-implant processing, in addition to extensive psychophysical tests using real-time head-tracking to present stable virtual sound sources. The findings will provide valuable information for the complex interplay between CI processing, reverberation and head movements and influence future the design of future CIs and clinical advice on optimum head position and movement for CI users.


Research activity codes: 1.2 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC PROCESSES;5.3 MEDICAL DEVICES
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;EAR
Title: Exploring Parameter Variation in Cochlear Implant Fitting to Improve Speech Perception in Difficult Listening Conditions
Funder: Action on Hearing Loss

Abstract: Cochlear Implantation is known to provide variable speech perception outcomes. This study aims to understand the influence of; changes to stimulation rate, input dynamic range (IDR), electrical threshold (T-level) and sensitivity on individual channel intensity difference limen (IDL) and speech perception. Adult CI users will be recruited to a pilot experiment designed to measure the effect of change to stimulation rate, IDR, T-level and sensitivity on IDL. A balanced cross-over study will follow to investigate the effect of two T-level manipulations in combination with parameter adjustments being directly informed by the pilot experiment. A second cross-over study exploring electrode deactivation will follow; electrodes within CI user maps will be deactivated based upon poor IDL results and this will be contrasted with electrodes with good IDL results being de-activated. Outcome measures within the cross-over and electrode deactivation study will include, sound field thresholds, IDL, monosyllable test in quiet, sentences in quiet and in noise. Understanding of the effect of program parameter manipulation, the predictive value of IDL to inform mapping and the influence upon speech perception will add to the knowledge base to guide clinical mapping of CIs.


Research activity codes: 1.1 NORMAL BIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTIONING;1.2 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC PROCESSES
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;EAR
Title: Paediatric Music-based Audiometry
Funder: Innovate UK

Abstract: Children presenting with communication disorders can be hard to diagnose via headphone audiology. They may have difficulty staying still, wearing headphones, and responding to 'uninteresting' sounds---in fact some children will only respond to their favourite songs. We are developing a new music-based audiometer that can address these issues by delivering a system that provides interesting dynamic stimuli while still accurately quantifying audiometric thresholds.


Research activity codes: 5.3 MEDICAL DEVICES;5.6 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND BEHAVIOURAL
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;EAR
Title: Computational Cognitive Neuroscience of Human Audition
Funder: Wellcome Trust

Abstract: Hearing is critical to human communication and intelligence. The cascade of neuronal processes that enable hearing remain poorly understood, particularly in computational terms. These gaps in knowledge limit our ability to design treatments for hearing impairment. The proposed research has three goals. First, to develop new computational models that can account for human perceptual abilities and neuronal responses. Second, to reveal representational transformations within auditory cortex that contribute to auditory recognition. Third, to use these models to develop auditory prostheses that augment human hearing. The overarching hypothesis is that the functional organization and tuning properties of the auditory system are constrained by ecologically important tasks (speech recognition, sound localization etc.), such that task-optimized models may converge to the structure of the auditory system. We will leverage deep learning to develop new neural network models of auditory computation. These models will be evaluated for their matches to behavior and brain data using sound synthesis methods introduced by the PI. Candidate hearing aids will then be derived by backpropagating recognition errors through the model to optimize a front-end audio transformation. Such audio transformation should restore model performance given an impaired model cochlea. We will then test their benefits for hearing-impaired listeners.

Lay abstract: The ability to derive information from sound is a core component of human intelligence, enabled by many stages of neuronal processing extending from the ear to the brain. Although much is known about how the ears convert sound to electrical signals that are sent to the brain, the mechanisms by which the brain mediates our sound recognition abilities remains poorly understood. To gain insight into the neuronal processes that enable auditory recognition, we will develop computer models that replicate human perception and neural responses to sound. The models will be validated with comparisons to human behavior and brain measurements, and then used to derive hearing aid algorithms. The research will help reveal the principles of human audition, enabling more effective machine algorithms and treatments for hearing disorders.

Research activity codes: 1.1 NORMAL BIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTIONING
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;EAR;NEUROLOGICAL
Title: Functional vision in children with disabilities and or learning difficulties
Funder: Department of Health (England)

Abstract: Objectives. To design a service that helps disabled children with functional vision impairment (difficulties with using their vision). Design. A review of existing evidence; new studies on children with functional vision problems; randomised tests of strategies to help and finally the design of a feasible clinical service.Expected outcomes. Papers on the impact of functional vision problems for children, a feasible service design and a plan for a study to evaluate the service.Anticipated benefits. Improved quality of life and life chances for children with functional vision problems and better targeting of resources in health and education.


Research activity codes: 7.1 INDIVIDUAL CARE NEEDS;8.1 ORGANISATION AND DELIVERY OF SERVICES
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;EYE
Title: 2010 Doctoral Fellowships: Vision and Visual Function in Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD); developing an evidence-base for the eye care profession
Funder: Health and Social Care Research and Development Division (HSC R&D) of Public Health Agency, Northern Ireland

Abstract: Autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental condition characterised by communication, social and imaginative deficits. It is relatively common, with a reported UK prevalence of 1:100. Visual perceptual anomalies have been reported in ASD, with evidence of superior performance in visual search tasks and deficits in motion detection and face recognition. However, there is a notable absence of data on basic visual processing and visual function in ASD with which eye care practitioners can form an evidence-base for assessment and management. A few studies describing visual status in small numbers of individuals with ASD have suggested an increased incidence of eye movement dysfunction and reduced binocularity and one study reports superior visual acuity in ASD. Orthoptists provide the bulk of vision testing of children with special needs in Nl and the applicant would be the first Nl orthoptist to undergo doctoral research training. The proposed project will address the following questions to explore the impact of ASD on the visual system and form an evidence-base for relevant professions. • How is current eye care provision for children with ASD delivered and how do clinicians and parents perceive the service? • What is the visual status of a large cohort of children with ASD? • How do basic visual functions and ocular structures compare between ASD and age-matched controls? Answers to these questions will be used to develop eye care services that better meet the needs of children with ASD and support eye care professionals working with them.


Research activity codes: 8.1 ORGANISATION AND DELIVERY OF SERVICES;2.4 SURVEILLANCE AND DISTRIBUTION
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;EYE
Title: Over three years to investigate diagnosis and treatment of visual and visuoperceptual anomalies in autism spectrum conditions
Funder: Action Medical Research

Abstract: Background_x000D_ Children with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) are thought to see things differently from unaffected children. For example, they can find it difficult to recognise different faces and to understand facial expressions. Children with ASC also often find it hard to make and maintain eye contact with other people. These difficulties may be caused by visual discomfort in response to certain strong visual stimuli such as bright and fluorescent lights. It has been shown that using coloured filters (such as coloured lenses, lights or overlays placed over text when reading) can improve reading in about 80 per cent of children with ASC. The researchers believe that the way children with ASC see the world could be at the root of many of the difficulties they experience with social behaviour and learning and they now have evidence that coloured filters could help these children to identify a person's emotions._x000D_ The research project_x000D_ The researchers plan to investigate the visual function of children with ASC to further understand the role of visual anomalies in causing learning and behavioural problems In addition, they aim to establish whether coloured filters help children with ASC to see and perceive things more clearly, focusing particularly on social skills such as recognising faces and identifying emotions in other people. The team hopes to develop a protocol including a number of visual and psychological assessments for the diagnosis and treatment of visual anomalies in ASC. If they can further demonstrate that coloured filters improve visual perception in ASC, this could enable immediate treatment for these children and have profound benefits for their learning and social behaviour, thereby improving their daily lives.


Research activity codes: 4.1 DISCOVERY AND PRECLINICAL TESTING OF MARKERS AND TECHNOLOGIES;2.1 BIOLOGICAL AND ENDOGENOUS FACTORS
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;EYE