Marjan Biria

I have a Bachelor's degree in Clinical Psychology and a Master's degree in Neuroscience. My master's project was about predicting schizophrenia development in patients with a high genetic predisposition using high-density EEG with 256 electrodes. I also have a background in Computer Science.

During my PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience from the University of Cambridge, under the supervision of Professor Trevor Robbins and with Professor Barbara Sahakian as my advisor, I studied compulsive behaviour in patients with OCD using clinical scales and a computer task to measure habitual versus goal-directed behaviour. We used 7T proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (1H-MRS) to measure neurochemical imbalance in brain regions important in the pathophysiology of OCD.

After designing and developing a new computer paradigm to measure checking behaviour (one of the most common symptoms of OCD) in a laboratory setting, I also studied the relationship between brain metabolites and checking behaviour in patients with OCD using 7T 1H-MRS.

Additionally, I also studies OCD symptoms of clozapine-treated patients with schizophrenia, showing OCD symptoms as a consequence of their treatment, under clinical supervision of Dr Emilio Fernandez-Egea. We used clinical scales and novel computer tasks to characterise clinical symptoms in patients with OCD, schizo-OCS, pure schizophrenia compared to each other and to healthy controls.

At the moment I am a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at UCL, working with Professor Argyris Stringers and Dr Georgina Krebs. I am designing a new computer task that allows us to capture the relevant factors underlying improvements in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, and model them using mathematical models.