๐ Busy week for the DMH group, with growing attention on the IRL trials exploring social media use and young people.
Great to see this work reaching wider audiences ๐๏ธ (46:25)
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
More: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
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#DigitalMentalHealth
๐ Congratulations to Georgia Turner on successfully passing her PhD viva!
Her work brought together cognitive neuroscience and social media research using reinforcement learning, network modelling and ML. Weโre delighted sheโs staying with the Digital Mental Health Group as a Research Associate. ๐
๐ Congratulations to @georgiaturner.bsky.social for passing her PhD with flying colours today! A meticulous and truly interdisciplinary piece of work.
Thank you also to @lorenzspreen.eurosky.social and Paul Fletcher for acting as examiners ๐
๐จNew pre-print๐จ
osf.io/preprints/ps...
What if the relationship between smartphone use and mental health depends not just on specific harmful or beneficial activities, but also on how users transition between activities?
My first paper, out in PsychReview!!
Along with @orbenamy.bsky.social, Nik & @jaeggiadrian.bsky.social, @realadamhunt.bsky.social & I revisit an old theoretical question using concepts from evo psychiatry and anthro:
Why do mixed associations exist b/w social media & mental health?
A ๐งต
๐จ New Preprint ๐จ
Some people are at greater risk of experiencing negative mental health outcomes of social media use than others, but why?
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We examined whether individual differences in cognitive processes shape risk and resilience to mental health effects on social media: osf.io/preprints/ps...
๐จOut now in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social ๐จ
We explore the use of cognitive theories/models with real-world data for understanding mental health.
We review emerging studies and discuss challenges and opportunities of this approach.
With @yaelniv.bsky.social and @eriknook.bsky.social
Thread โฌ๏ธ
Mental and metabolic health are closely linked - but what drives this connection? In our new theory paper, we (w/ @camillanord.bsky.social & @hugofleming.bsky.social g.bsky.social) propose dysregulation of interoceptive energy allostasis as a key mechanism.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... ๐งต 1/n
Check out @bcdavidson.bsky.social's preprint (w/ @georgiaturner.bsky.social @orbenamy.bsky.social @livia-tomova.bsky.social and co.) about the (computational) consequences of social isolation in social media use during covid!
Huge thank you to the co-author team: @stepalminteri.bsky.social, @livia-tomova.bsky.social, Johannes Eichsteadt, Aadesh Salecha, Shashanka Subrahmanya and, most importantly, the incredible supervisor trio of @orbenamy.bsky.social, @georgiaturner.bsky.social @lukasgunschera.com
This work brings together two lines of research: (1) evidence that social needs may be homeostatic, similar to hunger or thirst, and (2) findings that social media posting can be modelled using a reinforcement learning framework: an approach that can be used to answer key research questions.
Figure showing a significant difference between 'habit weight' in high and low social isolation. Habit weight is a component of the RL model that weights a model-free RL posting policy and a habitual posting policy.
In a preregistered study of 535 US Twitter users, we found that people learn more from social rewards during periods of high isolation. That is, when isolated, they weigh 'Likes' more heavily in deciding how often to post.
๐จ New Preprint ๐จ
Prolonged Isolation is associated with an increased behavioural sensitivity to โLikesโ on social media.
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Social media rewards are inherently socialโbut does posting change during social isolation, when in-person social rewards are limited?
It turns out, yes!
Great time in London watching intern @sineadcleary.bsky.social and research assistant Brandon Davidson give a fantastic presentation to the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology - what superstars I get to work with!
I'm hiring 2+ 2.5-year postdocs over the next few months.
Job 1: looking for someone with deep expertise in computational modelling (reinforcement learning, agent based modelling) on real-world/complex data (closing: 18 August, starting: October-December), www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/52059/
This is incredible, huge congratulations - so well deserved. ๐๐
Absolutely thrilled to have been awarded an 8-year Wellcome Career Development Award to investigate how loneliness affects young people's brains and minds!! Grateful for the support and excited for the road ahead!
@wellcometrust.bsky.social
www.cardiff.ac.uk/news/view/29...
๐จNew preprint ๐จ
๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ๐ก ๐๐๐ซ๐ฌ๐ฉ๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐๐ฌ ๐จ๐ง ๐๐จ๐๐ข๐๐ฅ ๐๐๐๐ข๐ ๐๐๐ซ๐ฆ๐ฌ: ๐ ๐๐๐ซ๐ ๐-๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ ๐๐ข๐๐ซ๐จ-๐๐๐ซ๐ซ๐๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐ ๐๐ญ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ
osf.io/preprints/ps...
๐งต
Using a novel micro-narrative method, we collected ~ 900 first-person accounts of social media harms from young people across the UK and US.
My undergraduate project has finally been preprinted! We explore how cognitive development as early as age 3 acts as a mediating pathway for the association of genes with academic achievement into adolescence.
Huge thanks to my incredible team of collaborators for their support.
PLEASE SHARE: The second (and final) application cycle for the Improving Research Community Builder Awards is now open! Find out more here: www.orben.group/improving-re...
Deadline: 14 January 2025