Meet the Team
Principal Investigators
Principal Investigator
Dr. Gráinne McLoughlin
Following her PhD training, funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC), and postdoctoral fellowship funded by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR), Gráinne undertook further postdoctoral training in computational neuroscience at the Swartz Center for Computational Neuroscience and the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California San Diego (UCSD).
Since 2013, Gráinne has been a faculty member at King's College London, where she currently holds the position of Reader in Cognitive Neuroscience at the Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry centre. Her primary research interests centre around brain function in various psychiatric and neurodevelopmental conditions, with a particular focus on attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder.
Gráinne's wealth of experience in different research methodologies is underscored by an enduring commitment to improving diagnostic and therapeutic outcomes across neurocognitive conditions.
Principal Investigator
Dr. Alexander Khalil
Alex is a senior lecturer in Music at University College Cork. He is an ethnomusicologist and cognitive scientist specialising in musicality in human interaction and the perception of time. His ethnographic work investigates timing and temporality amongst chanters both at ancient centres of the tradition, such as Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), and in diaspora.
Alex's work in Cognitive Neuroscience connects synchronous behaviour and synchrony at the neural level with other aspects of cognition such as attentional behaviour, and so links the practice of music to broader areas of cognition. Alex received his doctorate in Music at the University of California, San Diego in 2009.
Upon completing his PhD, Alex joined the department of Cognitive Science at UCSD as a postdoctoral scholar and fellow at the Temporal Dynamics of Learning Centre. In 2014, he joined the Institute for Neural Computation, also based at UCSD, as a project scientist where he developed methods for EEG recording with multiple people, also known as 'hyperscanning', in ecological environments.
Clinical Lead
Lead Consultant Psychiatrist at SLaM
Prof. Dominic ffytche
Dominic ffytche has worked in the Department of Old Age Psychiatry at King’s College London since 2006. As Professor of Visual Psychiatry and Lead Consultant Psychiatrist to the Visual Perceptual Disorder clinic at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, he has a particular interest in visual perception and its dysfunction in the brain and eye degenerative diseases.
He leads the neurodegenerative disease EEG laboratory and has extensive experience in pharmaco-EEG and EEG and evoked potential measures for clinical trials. He has published extensively on clinical and neuroscientific aspects of visual hallucinations, and is an international expert on Charles Bonnet Syndrome.
Research team
Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr. AmirAli Farokhniaee
AmirAli completed his Bachelor's degree in atomic-molecular physics at the University of Tehran, Iran, and continued his graduate studies at Florida Atlantic University and the University of Connecticut, where he obtained his PhD in Physics. His research focused on simulation and analysis of gradient frequency neural networks, with an emphasis on auditory neuroscience and sound/music perception applying rules of theoretical and computational neuroscience.
AmirAli has worked extensively in research on network models of Parkinson’s disease and deep brain stimulation at Case Western Reserve University (USA) and University College Dublin (UCD, Ireland), and attained an industrial fellowship from Science Foundation Ireland to lead a research project in this area between UCD and Newronika S.P.A. in Milan, Italy. Following this, AmirAli held the role of Senior Research Scientist in Brain and Neuromodulation at IT’IS Foundation in Zurich, Switzerland. He continues to work as a research scientist in UCD and UCC, collaborating on the SoundMind project.
Research Assistant
Aoibhe De Burca
Aoibhe completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology at Trinity College Dublin (TCD), with a minor in French. Her final year research project centred around the use of transcranial direct current stimulation to improve memory consolidation. Aoibhe has since held the role of Research Assistant in The Cusack Lab at TCD, a developmental cognitive neuroscience lab. She recently completed her Master’s degree in Neuropsychology at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, for which she is undertook a research internship on the SoundMind project, before rejoining the project as a Research Assistant.
Research Assistant
Pia Kirby-Roycroft
Pia is a final-year student at University College Cork, currently completing a Bachelor’s degree in Film and Screen Media. With a background in classical music, Pia is trained to the ABRSM Grade 8 standard of music theory and is an award-winning bassoon and piano player. Their role as a film critic and screener for festivals like the Dublin International Film Festival and the Galway Film Fleadh has leant a major hand in producing high-quality written reports and accurate descriptions. As a first-time research assistant, Pia has applied many of the transferable skills from their background in film to this new venture in research.
Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr. Lewis Smith
Lewis presently works as a postdoctoral researcher at UCD, having earned both his Master’s degree in Music and his PhD in the area of human-computer interaction from Ulster University. His work revolves around the use of immersive technology in music with an emphasis on inclusivity.
A long-time musician and composer, Lewis has built up years of experience working in the music industry which has informed his work in embodied cognition and participatory design. Through this research, Lewis has designed software alongside musicians with disabilities to improve accessibility, enabling those with physical or intellectual disabilities to compose and perform music using virtual reality.
Research Assistant
Eve Bolland
Eve works as a Research Assistant at the SGDP Centre at King's, coordinating the SoundMind project day to day. Eve holds an undergraduate degree in Psychology from University College London (UCL). Building on this, she pursued a Master's degree in Cognitive Neuroscience at UCL, during which she had the privilege of working at the Queen's Square Institute of Neurology, investigating motor impairments in chronic stroke, gaining valuable insights into the complexities of neurodegenerative disorders.
Administrative team
Administrative Assistant
Rachel Gough
Rachel Gough is a writer, filmmaker, and PhD researcher at the Department of Film and Screen Media at UCC, where she also completed her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. Her research focuses on representations of rural Ireland’s ecologies in film, television, and video games. In 2023, Rachel was awarded the Lord Puttnam Scholarship, in recognition of outstanding achievement across three fronts: research, creative practice, and community outreach. She is an award-winning filmmaker and published short fiction writer. Additionally, Rachel was the recipient of the Editor’s Choice award in 2022 from the National Flash Fiction Anthology. Her forthcoming short fiction work will be published in Best Small Fictions 2023.