Year of Placement: August 2007 to July 2008
This form should be completed by Clinical Academics who wish to host a F2 Academic
Foundation trainee for a 4 month academic research placement during the 12 month period
August 2007 to July 2008. This form will be given to potential F2 Academic Trainees in order to inform their preferred placement choices and will be on the website. This form is 2 A4 sides, and should not be extended.
Educational Supervisor(s) For F2 Academic Placement: Professor Peter WR Woodruff
Nominated Foundation Programme Director: Dr Jonathan Mitchell (Sheffield Health and
Social Care NHS Foundation Trust)
Dr Alan Fletcher (Deanery)
Academic Unit or Group: ACADEMIC CLINICAL PSYCHIATRY
E-mail: p.w.woodruff@sheffield.ac.uk
Tel: 0114 2261501
Address: Longley Centre
Northern General Hospital
Norwood Grange Drive
Sheffield
S5 7JT
Website: www.sheffield.ac.uk/psychiatry
Title of Project for the F2 Academic Placement:
The psycho-neurobiology of psychiatric syndromes.
Where will the Project for the F2 Academic Placement be Based?
Academic Clinical Psychiatry and the Sheffield Cognition and Neuroimaging Laboratory (SCANLab.)
Description of the Academic Project for the F2 Academic Placement:
Background:
The research focuses on the investigation of the neurobiological basis, and the treatment response, of severe neuropsychiatric disorder. There are opportunities for students to participate actively in specific projects within the research programme. There is an emphasis on work of clinical significance which covers the following main themes:
Perception: Auditory processing and hallucinations, visual processing, and time perception.
Social Cognition & Communication: empathy, forgiveness, deception, emotional signals and cues.
Executive Functioning: willed action and temporal processing.
Modulation of Cognitive Systems by Novel Treatments: pharmacological, psychological, physical e.g. Transcranial
Magnetic Stimulation [TMS]).
We perform this work within the following populations: healthy volunteers and patients with Schizophrenia; utilising the techniques of: Functional MRI; Structural MRI; TMS, Skin Conductance Response (SCR) recordings; genetics; neuropsychology.
Project Aims and Methodologies:
Objectives of the Training Programme: (i) To participate in original research and to the writing of >1 scientific paper; (ii) F2s will be supported and encouraged to apply for an academic clinical fellowship to allow them to continue their academic and clinical interests.
Methodologies include:
Clinical and neuropsychological evaluation of clinical and non-clinical populations; descriptive and group-wise statistical evaluation of differences; design and implementation of functional MR paradigms including means of recording on-line behavioural data during scanning; implementation of structural and functional MR scanning acquisition sequences and analysis of MR imaging data [through use of SPM programmes]; interpretation of brain imaging maps and application of standardised coordinate systems for their interpretation; use of SCR and

interpretation of SCR signals, application of TMS and understanding of this technique for research and practice.
Description of Training the F2 Academic Trainee Will Receive and Access to Research Facilities:
Research Training: Literature searching a psychiatry research topic; learning about the research protocol and relevant techniques (above); introduction to research ethics and research governance; preparing and presenting work for peer review; attending weekly SCANLab meetings to contributing to scientific debate, learning from research discussions; learning data analysis and writing up incl. contributing to a scientific paper; learning about translational aspects of neuroscience including neuroimaging and neuropsychology in clinical psychiatry. Clinical
Training: Opportunities exist for trainees to attend clinical sessions with Prof. Woodruff on the Academic Clinical
Unit to complete clinical competencies if needbe.
Since 2001 more than 92 students have conducted research projects with Academic Clinical Psychiatry, many leading to peer-reviewed publications. 9 of 10 BMedSci students in since 2003 achieved 1st Class degrees making it a very popular option for students; 2 are currently completing their projects and 3 commenced in June 2008. Outputs since 2000 include over 180 scientific papers [50 of which include clinical psychiatry trainees and medical students]
£3.1 Million research income [www.sheffield.ac.uk/psychiatry]. Existing funding exists for work within the areas outlined.
Facilities:
Facilities include: an academic clinical service and inpatient unit, the Sheffield Cognition And Neuroimaging
Laboratory (SCANLab; www.shef.ac.uk/ scanlab), weekly case conferences, journal clubs, research meetings.
Psychiatry is an intrinsic part of the Section of Neuroscience and is home to SCANLab, a dedicated neuroimaging laboratory offering state-of-the-art computing facilities for the analysis of functional imaging data. The multidisciplinary research team, of psychiatrists, MR Physicists, neuropsychologists, neuroscientists, image analysts and computer systems experts, comprises 23 staff and 6 PhD students. SCANLab is linked to the Radiology Dept. at the
Royal Hallamshire Hospital where the MR scanners reside. The Clinical Research Facility of 8 inpatient beds with nursing staff will support our clinical research studies.
References (Only Include Top 5):
1). Farrow TFD, Zheng Y, Wilkinson ID, Spence SA, Deakin JFW, Tarrier N, Griffiths PD, Woodruff PWR. (2001)
Investigating the functional anatomy of empathy and forgiveness NeuroReport 12: 13, 2433-2438. The first functional neuroimaging study to demonstrate the functional anatomy of empathy & forgiveness and the brain’s response to treatment;
2
). Lee KH, Brown WH, Egleston PN, Green RDJ, Farrow TFD, Hunter Md, Parks RW, Wilkinson ID, Spence SA,
Woodruff PWR (2006) An fMRI study of social cognition in patients with schizophrenia during an acute episode and following recovery .
American Journal of Psychiatry 163 (11): 1926-1933: 2006
The first neuroimaging demonstration that functional recovery of a brain region after treatment relates to improved social outcome in schizophrenia
3). Sokhi DS, Hunter, MD, Wilkinson ID, Woodruff PWR. (2005) Male and female voice activate distinct regions in the male brain. Neuroimage 27: 572-8. The first demonstration using functional MRI that male and female voices activate distinct regions in the male brain. This been the focus of >30 media articles and broadcasts across 4 continents, incl. citations in Science;
4). Hunter MD, Eickhoff S, Miller T, Farrow TFD, Wilkinson ID, Woodruff PWR. (2006) Neural activity in speechsensitive auditory cortex during silence. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 103: 572-8. The first functional MRI demonstration, and method for detecting the presence, of spontaneous activation of auditory cortex in acoustic silence. This work represents a major development in neuroimaging methodology and to theories of auditory hallucinations (cited as
“remarkable” in an editorial in Current Biology [2006, Vol 16,11: R410-11;
5). Spence SA, Green RD, Wilkinson ID, Hunter MD. (2005) Modafinil modulates anterior cingulate function in chronic schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry 187: 55-61. The first RCT of modafinil's modulatory effect upon prefrontal function in schizophrenia.
Outline of the F2 Academic Placement Project Plan (including literature review, presentation and writing up and assessment of the placement):
Each F2 trainee will be assigned a senior clinical academic supervisor and receive regularly scheduled and logged weekly supervision in addition to daily support from the Research Team. Progress will be monitored and assessed regularly and formally at monthly intervals to ensure the trainee is adhering to the project plan.
Month 1: literature review, presentation of protocol at SCANLab
Month 2: review of preliminary data, identifying further data requirements;
Month 3: review of data acquired, complete data acquisition, initial analyses;
Month 4: complete analyses, write up, final presentation, preparation for Academic Clinical Fellowship application, placement assessment.