Dr Paul Fletcher

Interests

I am interested in psychosis. I agree with the long tradition of clinical psychiatric research which suggests that, during a psychotic illness, the world is a strange place because strange associations are formed and inconsequential stimuli are assigned undue weight. This can be extremely unpleasant. I think that, if we can understand the brain basis for how associations are made and how we come to think of particular environmental stimuli as important, then perhaps we can apply this to understanding psychotic symptoms such as delusions, hallucinations and thought disorder.

I use combined functional neuroimaging and pharmacological experiments together with studies with patients in order to explore the extent to which such symptoms may be related to deficits in basic learning processes.

Research Focus

Equipment

Neuropsychological testing