University of Hertfordshire

Summary of Main Research Themes:

Key themes

1. Early development of cognition and behaviour in adult psychosis ( Done).
In collaboration with the Centre for Longitudinal Studies, POWIC ( University of Oxford) and CLiCIR at UH we have identified most, if not all cases of adult onset psychosis in two British birth cohorts (NCDS and BCS70) . This permits analysis of early childhood development using unbiased, prospectively collected data. Two citation classics have resulted in addition to a number of other relevant papers.

2. Semantic memory disturbance in schizophrenia (Laws, Done, PhD students include Green, Doughty, Leeson).
Over 10 years ago, Professors Laws and McKenna published the first studies of semantic memory deficits in patients with schizophrenia. This work shows that in some schizophrenics, the degree of knowledge impairment is as great as that documented in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. This work has continued over that time, producing approximately 15-20 papers. In particular, they have investigated whether the semantic memory problems found in schizophrenics reflect a disorder affecting the accessing of intact semantics or a loss of the semantic knowledge representations themselves. Additionally, they have investigated the link between semantic memory dysfunction and schizophrenic symptoms (such as thought disorder and delusions).

3. Impaired salience in schizophrenia ( Done )
Explored with experimental cognitive neuropsychological methods ; first hand experience in development of , and recovery from, delusions.

4. Confabulation and schizophrenia ( Done ; Cloherty; Doughty)

5. Phenomenology of Auditory Hallucinations ( Done; Cottam; Paul )

References:

John Done:

Citation Classics:
Frith CD and Done DJ (1988) Towards a neuropsychology of schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry,153,437,437-443.

Done DJ, Johnstone EC, Frith CD, Golding J, Shepherd PM, Crow TJ (1991). Complications of pregnancy and delivery in relation to psychosis in adult life: data from the British perinatal mortality survey sample. British Medical Journal 302,1576-1580 .

Done DJ, CrowTJ, Johnstone EC, Sacker A (1994) Childhood antecedents of schizophrenia and affective illness: social adjustment at ages 7 and 11. British Medical Journal, 309,699-703.

Examples of recent work

Lawrence, V. A. , Doughty, O. , Al-Mousawi, A. , Clegg, F. and Done, D. J. ( in press) Do overinclusion and distorted semantic category boundaries in schizophrenia arise from executive dysfunction? Schizophrenia Research

Hajilou B.B., Done D.J. (2007) Evidence for a dissociation of structural and semantic knowledge in dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT). Neuropsychologia.,45(4):810-6.

Simpson, J. and Done, D.J. (2004) Analogical reasoning in schizophrenic delusions. European Journal of Psychiatry,19(6), 344-348.

Green NEA, Done DJ, Anthony SH, McKenna PJ, Ochocki M ( 2004) Can disorganisation of semantic memory account for the abnormalities of thought in schizophrenia – a controlled experimental study ? Schizophrenia Research,70, 233-240.

Hill K, Mann L, Laws KR, Stephenson CME, Nimmo-Smith I and McKenna PJ. (2004). Hyperfrontality in Schizophrenia. A meta-analysis of functional imaging studies. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 110, 243-256. Currently, one of most cited articles in this journal

Tyson PJ, Laws KR, Roberts KH and Mortimer AM. (2004). Stability of set-shifting and planning abilities in patients with schizophrenia. Psychiatry Research, 129, 229-239

Leeson VC, Laws KR & McKenna PJ. (2006). Formal thought disorder is characterised by impaired lexical access. Schizophrenia Research, 88, 161-168

Kondel TK, Mortimer AM, Leeson VC, Laws KR and Hirsch SR. (2003). Intellectual differences between schizophrenic patients and normal controls across the adult lifespan. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 25, 1045-1056

Other Info

PhD opportunities

Cognitive models of psychosis:
Especially in the areas of semantic memory, stimulus salience, neural network or other computational models.
Epidemiology of psychosis.

Consultancy Offered

Research methods in cognitive neuropsychology, clinical trials design and statistical advice ( through HRDSU)