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Dr Ellie Smith

Former Research Student

Ellie Smith

Research overview

I am interested in the relationship between parental personality, in the form of Schizotypy, and its effect on early sensory processing in infants. I am funded by the Leverhulme Trust. Schizotypy is a construct used to describe clusters of personality dimensions within the general population that display a predisposition to schizophrenia spectrum disorders. I aim to address whether the offspring of those adults with personality traits suggestive of Schizotypy also display the sensory gating, and perceptual emotional facial expression  abnormalities previously observed in first-degree relatives. 

I am also interested in the baseline activity that can be observed during freeplay. For example, during free-play, interactions take place that focus on the caregivers’ ability to read the child’s behaviour with reference to the likely internal states governing that specific behaviour. This is known as mind-mindedness.

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