Dr Liat Levita
BSc, PhD
Department of Psychology
Lecturer in Developmental Neuroscience
+44 114 222 6651
Full contact details
Department of Psychology
Cathedral Court
1 Vicar Lane
Sheffield
S1 2LT
- Qualifications
-
- BSc (Hons) University of St Andrews
- PhD, University of Cambridge
- Research interests
-
My research integrates methods of behavioural psychology, and functional and structural brain imaging to understand the neurobiological mechanisms underlying developmental changes in emotion, cognition and social function, especially during adolescence.
This work is guided by fundamental scientific questions, but is also designed to have potential application in helping to design interventions to increase resilience and well-being during adolescence in susceptible populations.
Current research tools: Functional and structural MRI, EEG and psychophysiological measures of emotional reactivity, e.g., electrodermal response (EDA), heart rate, and facial EMG.
- Publications
-
Show: Featured publications All publications
Featured publications
Journal articles
- Neuroimaging studies in patients with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures: A systematic meta-review. NeuroImage: Clinical, 16, 210-221. View this article in WRRO
- Anticipatory representations of reward and threat in perceptual areas from preadolescence to late adolescence. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 25, 246-259. View this article in WRRO
- Anticipatory representations of reward and threat in perceptual areas from preadolescence to late adolescence. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 25, 246-259.
- Potentiation of the early visual response to learned danger signals in adults and adolescents.. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci, 10(2), 269-277.
- The Behavioural Inhibition System, anxiety and hippocampal volume in a non-clinical population.. Biol Mood Anxiety Disord, 4(1), 4. View this article in WRRO
- Role of the hippocampus in goal-oriented tasks requiring retrieval of spatial versus non-spatial information.. Neurobiol Learn Mem, 93(4), 581-588.
- The storm and stress of adolescence: insights from human imaging and mouse genetics.. Dev Psychobiol, 52(3), 225-235.
- A genetic variant BDNF polymorphism alters extinction learning in both mouse and human.. Science, 327(5967), 863-866.
- Bi-directional modulation of bed nucleus of stria terminalis neurons by 5-HT: molecular expression and functional properties of excitatory 5-HT receptor subtypes.. Neuroscience, 164(4), 1776-1793.
- Brain-derived neurotrophic factor as a model system for examining gene by environment interactions across development.. Neuroscience, 164(1), 108-120.
- The bivalent side of the nucleus accumbens.. Neuroimage, 44(3), 1178-1187.
- 5-hydroxytryptamine1A-like receptor activation in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis: electrophysiological and behavioral studies.. Neuroscience, 128(3), 583-596.
- Subtypes of substance P receptor immunoreactive interneurons in the rat basolateral amygdala.. Brain Res, 981(1-2), 41-51.
- Sulpiride alleviates the attentional impairments of rats with medial prefrontal cortex lesions.. Behav Brain Res, 138(1), 59-69.
- Nucleus accumbens dopamine and learned fear revisited: a review and some new findings.. Behav Brain Res, 137(1-2), 115-127.
- Disruption of Pavlovian contextual conditioning by excitotoxic lesions of the nucleus accumbens core.. Behav Neurosci, 116(4), 539-552.
- Spatial learning and hippocampal long-term potentiation are not impaired in mdx mice.. Neurosci Lett, 211(3), 207-210.
- Linguistic Alignment in Adults with and Without Asperger’s
Syndrome. J Autism Dev Disord.
All publications
Journal articles
- Psychological characteristics associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and resistance in Ireland and the United Kingdom. Nature Communications, 12(1).
- The Authoritarian Dynamic During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Effects on Nationalism and Anti-Immigrant Sentiment. Social Psychological and Personality Science. View this article in WRRO
- Catastrophising and repetitive negative thinking tendencies in patients with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures or epilepsy. Seizure, 83, 57-62.
- A reduction in the implicit sense of agency during adolescence compared to childhood and adulthood. Consciousness and Cognition, 87.
- Monitoring the psychological, social, and economic impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic in the population : context, design and conduct of the longitudinal COVID‐19 psychological research consortium (C19PRC) study. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research. View this article in WRRO
- Anxiety, depression, traumatic stress and COVID-19-related anxiety in the UK general population during the COVID-19 pandemic. BJPsych Open, 6(6).
- Capability, opportunity, and motivation to enact hygienic practices in the early stages of the COVID‐19 outbreak in the United Kingdom. British Journal of Health Psychology. View this article in WRRO
- Evaluation of LiNES : a new measure of trauma, negative affect, and relationship insecurity over the life span in persons with FND. The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences. View this article in WRRO
- Cognitive control across adolescence : dynamic adjustments and mind-wandering. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. View this article in WRRO
- Early life stress is associated with reduced avoidance of threatening facial expressions. Development and Psychopathology. View this article in WRRO
- Updating Beliefs under Perceived Threat. Journal of Neuroscience, 38(36), 7901-7911. View this article in WRRO
- Emotion dysregulation in patients with psychogenic nonepileptic seizures: A systematic review based on the extended process model. Epilepsy and Behavior, 86, 37-48. View this article in WRRO
- Developmental changes in the cortical sources of spontaneous alpha throughout adolescence. International Journal of Psychophysiology. View this article in WRRO
- Cortical thickness and gyrification patterns in patients with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures. Neuroscience Letters, 678(Epilepsia 54 2013), 124-130. View this article in WRRO
- Comorbid depression and associated factors in PNES versus epilepsy: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Seizure, 60, 44-56. View this article in WRRO
- Changes in emotion processing following brief augmented psychodynamic interpersonal therapy for functional neurological symptoms. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 46(3), 350-366. View this article in WRRO
- Human behavioural discrimination of human, chimpanzee and macaque affective vocalisations is reflected by the neural response in the superior temporal sulcus. Neuropsychologia, 111, 145-150. View this article in WRRO
- Neuroimaging studies in patients with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures: A systematic meta-review. NeuroImage: Clinical, 16, 210-221. View this article in WRRO
- Anticipatory representations of reward and threat in perceptual areas from preadolescence to late adolescence. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 25, 246-259. View this article in WRRO
- Anticipatory representations of reward and threat in perceptual areas from preadolescence to late adolescence. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 25, 246-259.
- Longitudinal changes in hippocampal volume in the Edinburgh High Risk Study of Schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research, 173(3), 146-151. View this article in WRRO
- Facets of clinicians' anxiety and the delivery of cognitive behavioral therapy. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 77, 157-161. View this article in WRRO
- Cortical Surface Area Differentiates Familial High Risk Individuals Who Go on to Develop Schizophrenia. Biological Psychiatry, 78(6), 413-420. View this article in WRRO
- Borderline personality disorder: patterns of self-harm, reported childhood trauma and clinical outcome. British Journal of Psychiatry Open, 1(1), 18-20. View this article in WRRO
- Hippocampal, amygdala and nucleus accumbens volume in first-episode schizophrenia patients and individuals at high familial risk: A cross-sectional comparison. Schizophrenia Research, 165(1), 45-51.
- Potentiation of the early visual response to learned danger signals in adults and adolescents.. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci, 10(2), 269-277.
- Applying imagined contact to improve physiological responses in anticipation of intergroup interactions and the perceived quality of these interactions. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 45(8), 425-436.
- Poster #T26 A CROSS-SECTIONAL AND LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF GLOBAL CORTICAL MORPHOLOGY IN THE EDINBURGH HIGH RISK STUDY OF SCHIZOPHRENIA. Schizophrenia Research, 153, S298-S298.
- The Behavioural Inhibition System, anxiety and hippocampal volume in a non-clinical population.. Biol Mood Anxiety Disord, 4(1), 4. View this article in WRRO
- Enhancing positive affect and divergent thinking abilities: Play some music and dance. Journal of Positive Psychology.
- Avoidance of harm and anxiety: a role for the nucleus accumbens.. Neuroimage, 62(1), 189-198.
- Midbrain activation during Pavlovian conditioning and delusional symptoms in schizophrenia.. Arch Gen Psychiatry, 67(12), 1246-1254.
- Role of the hippocampus in goal-oriented tasks requiring retrieval of spatial versus non-spatial information.. Neurobiol Learn Mem, 93(4), 581-588.
- The storm and stress of adolescence: insights from human imaging and mouse genetics.. Dev Psychobiol, 52(3), 225-235.
- A genetic variant BDNF polymorphism alters extinction learning in both mouse and human.. Science, 327(5967), 863-866.
- Bi-directional modulation of bed nucleus of stria terminalis neurons by 5-HT: molecular expression and functional properties of excitatory 5-HT receptor subtypes.. Neuroscience, 164(4), 1776-1793.
- Brain-derived neurotrophic factor as a model system for examining gene by environment interactions across development.. Neuroscience, 164(1), 108-120.
- Attention enhances the retrieval and stability of visuospatial and olfactory representations in the dorsal hippocampus.. PLoS Biol, 7(6), e1000140. View this article in WRRO
- The bivalent side of the nucleus accumbens.. Neuroimage, 44(3), 1178-1187.
- 5-hydroxytryptamine1A-like receptor activation in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis: electrophysiological and behavioral studies.. Neuroscience, 128(3), 583-596.
- Subtypes of substance P receptor immunoreactive interneurons in the rat basolateral amygdala.. Brain Res, 981(1-2), 41-51.
- Sulpiride alleviates the attentional impairments of rats with medial prefrontal cortex lesions.. Behav Brain Res, 138(1), 59-69.
- Nucleus accumbens dopamine and learned fear revisited: a review and some new findings.. Behav Brain Res, 137(1-2), 115-127.
- Disruption of Pavlovian contextual conditioning by excitotoxic lesions of the nucleus accumbens core.. Behav Neurosci, 116(4), 539-552.
- Spatial learning and hippocampal long-term potentiation are not impaired in mdx mice.. Neurosci Lett, 211(3), 207-210.
- COVID-19-Related Anxiety Predicts Somatic Symptoms in the UK Population. View this article in WRRO
- Capability, opportunity and motivation to enact hygienic practices in the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak in the UK. View this article in WRRO
- Correction: Attention Enhances the Retrieval and Stability of Visuospatial and Olfactory Representations in the Dorsal Hippocampus. PLoS Biology, 8(10).
- Correction: Attention Enhances the Retrieval and Stability of Visuospatial and Olfactory Representations in the Dorsal Hippocampus. PLoS Biology, 8(10).
- Pandemic buying: Testing a psychological model of over-purchasing and panic buying using data from the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Report1: Impact of Covid-19 on young people aged 13-24 in the UK- preliminary findings.
- Context, design and conduct of the longitudinal COVID-19 Psychological Research Consortium (C19PRC) Study – Wave 3.
- An overview of the context, design and conduct of the first two waves of the COVID-19 Psychological Research Consortium (C19PRC) Study.
- The psychological wellbeing of frontline workers in the United Kingdom during the COVID-19 pandemic: First and second wave findings from the COVID-19 Psychological Research Consortium (C19PRC) Study.
- Report2: Impact of Covid-19 on young people aged 13-24 in the UK- preliminary findings.
- Demographic, Health and Mental Health Predictors of Face Mask Wearing in the UK Population During the COVID-19 Lockdown Period..
- Monitoring the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the general population: an overview of the context, design and conduct of the COVID-19 Psychological Research Consortium (C19PRC) Study.
- A reduction in the implicit sense of agency during adolescence compared to childhood and adulthood.
- Anxiety, Depression, Traumatic Stress, and COVID-19 Related Anxiety in the UK General Population During the COVID-19 Pandemic..
- Linguistic Alignment in Adults with and Without Asperger’s
Syndrome. J Autism Dev Disord.
- Dynamic Adjustments of Midfrontal Control Signals in Adults and Adolescents. Cerebral Cortex.
- Delay discounting and under-valuing of recent information predict lower adherence to social distancing measures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Different conspiracy theories have different psychological and social determinants: Comparison of three theories about the origins of the COVID-19 virus in a representative sample of the UK population.
- Interoception and stress in patients with Functional Neurological Symptom Disorder. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 1-20.
Chapters
- BOLD fMRI: an update with emphasis on pediatric applications, Neuroimaging in Developmental Clinical Neuroscience (pp. 281-295). Cambridge University Press
Conference proceedings papers
- Using Resting State Heart Rate Variability and Skin Conductance Response to Detect Depression in Adults. 2020 42nd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society (EMBC), 20 July 2020 - 24 July 2020.
- Relationship between interoception and stress in patients with functional neurological symptom disorder. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, Vol. 90(Suppl 2) (pp A11-A11), 7 March 2019 - 8 March 2019. View this article in WRRO
- 44 Lifespan of negative experiences in functional neurological disorder patients. Members’ POSTER Abstracts
- Changes in emotion processing associated with brief augmented psychodynamic interpersonal therapy for functional neurological symptoms. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, Vol. 88(8) (pp A15-A15) View this article in WRRO
- Interaction with the Paro robot may reduce psychophysiological stress responses. 2016 11th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), 7 March 2016 - 10 March 2016.
- Neuroimaging studies in patients with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures: A systematic meta-review. NeuroImage: Clinical, 16, 210-221. View this article in WRRO
- Teaching activities
-
I teach on the following modules, on the Undergraduate Psychology degree:
- PSY259 - Critical Skills for Psychologists II
- PSY331 - Extended Essays
- PSY346 - Research Projects
I teach on the following modules, on the Postgraduate MSc Systems Neuroscience degree
- PSY6414 - Neuroimaging
- PSY6431 - Research Project in Cognitive, Systems or Imaging Neuroscience
- Professional activities
-
Leadership/administrative roles
- Level 2 Tutor
- Member of the Psychology Teaching Committee
- Member of the Staff Student Committee