NEWS!!!
January 2015:
- Michael has been awarded funding from the British Psychological Society to convene a symposium on 'The Psychobiology of Stress' at the European Congress of Psychology in Milan in July. Symposium speakers include Dr Mark Wetherell (Northumbria University), Professor Angela Clow (University of Westminster) and Dr Sarita Robinson (University of Central Lancashire).
- PhD students Sarah Allen and Kara Danks have had thier project proposals approved by their progression panels.
December 2014:
- PhD student Nicola Jones has passed her PhD subject to minor corrections!
- Michael has had two papers accepted for publication this month. One is in collaboration with Drs Mark Wetherell and Brian Lovell, and is investigating the effect of an anticipated demanding event on diurnal cortisol secretion. The other is a study which observed that personal control illness beleifs mediate the association between the doctor-patient relationship and diabetes-related distress.
November 2014:
- Michael has been elected onto the British Psychological Society's Standing Conference Committee for a 3 year term of office.
October 2014:
- This month, Michael has been involved in data collection for the the Many Labs 2 Replication Project.
- Michael is on the supervision team of four PhD students who started on 1st October. Sarah Allen is investigating mechanisms underpinning the relationship between Type D personality and subjective health complaints, Kerry Rulton is developing an online intervention to prevent sexual risk taking behaviours in adolescents, Kara Danks and Sam Redgate are developing peer-educator interventions for health-related behaviour change in prison settings.
September 2014:
- Michael has presented two conferences talks this month. He presented some work at the British Psychological Society Division of Health Psychology Annual Conference in York on personal control as a mediator of the association between the doctor-patient relationship and diabetes-related distress. He then gave a talk on Type D personality and stress reactivity as part of a symposium on 'The Psychobiology of Stress' at the BPS North East of England Annual Conference in Newcastle upon Tyne.
August 2014:
- Unfortunately, Michael will be missing his regular trip to the Lake District for the BPS Psychobiology Section conference next month due to other commitments. However, he will still be represnted at this conference! Chris Alford (UWE) will be presenting some collaborative work entitled: 'The effects of sleep disruption on dietary intake – and effects of type 1 diabetes on sleep: A ‘double-whammy’'.
July 2014:
- Michael has been invited to give a keynote at this year's BPS 'Psychology 4 Students' (North) event in Sheffield. He will be presenting a talk entitled 'Sweet memories: Glucose enhancement of human memory'.
June 2014:
- Sarah Allen has been awarded a Northumbria University studentship to undertake a PhD under the supervision of Dr Michael Smith, Dr Mark Wetherell and Dr Brian Lovell, relating to Type D personality and stress reactivity. In addition, Kerry Rulton has also been awarded a PhD studentship to investigate an online intervention for the promotion of sexual health in teenagers. Kerry will be supervised by Dr Linda Little from PaCT lab, and will be co-supervised by Dr Michael Smith.
May 2014:
- Michael has given an invited talk at the British Psychological Society Annual Conference in Birmingham entitled 'Neurocognitive mechanisms underpinning the glucose memory facilitation effect'. The talk was presented as part of a symposium, 'New Directions in Human Neuroscience'.
- Together with Professor Andrew Scholey (Centre for Human Psychopharmacology, Swinburne University, Melbourne, Australia), Michael has published an editorial for a Research Topic on 'Nutritional influences on human neurocognitive functioning' in the journal 'Frontiers in Human Neuroscience'. Click here to see the editorial and here for the Research Topic.
April 2014:
- We have had three papers accepted for publication this month: i) relating to cardiovascular reactivity and Type D personality, ii) a Diabetes UK funded study which investigated cognitive performance and functional living in older adults with type 2 diabetes, and iii) a review of the neuroimaging literature relating to memory impairment in type 2 diabetes.
March 2014:
- A funded PhD studentship is available to work with Dr Michael Smith, Dr Mark Wetherell and Dr Brian Lovell, investigating the mechanisms underpinning dysregulation of the HPA axis and cardiovascular reactivity in Type D personality. Click here for details.
February 2014:
- Click here to view our recently published paper 'Cortisol reactivity to psychosocial stress is greater in sexual risk takers'
January 2014:
- We have had a paper published in Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine demonstrating increased cortisol reactivity to psychosocial stress in sexual risk takers.
- PhD students Oli Hare and Mia Campbell have both had their project proposals approved. Both of their panels were impressed with the projects which they propose to run for their PhDs. Congrats Oli and Mia!
December 2013:
- Michael attended the World Diabetes Congress in Melbourne, Australia and presented two posters relating to i) findings from a study investigating functional living, dual tasking and postural control in older adults with type 2 diabetes (which was funded by Diabetes UK) and ii) PhD work of Nicola Jones which investigated the influence of cognitive demand on recognition memory performance in older adults with type 2 diabetes.
- As part of a sabbatical visit to Australia, Michael has visited colleagues in the Centre for Human Psychopharmacology at Swinburne University, Melbourne and the Sleep Laboratory in the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences at Melbourne University.
November 2013:
- Michael attended the launch of the Health Psychology and Behavioural Medicine Research Group at Curtin University, Australia, and presented a research seminar entitled 'A spoonful of sugar: Glucose and glucoregulatory influences on human memory' in the School of Psychology and Speech Pathology at Curtin.
October 2013:
- On 29th October, Michael represented the Psychobiology Section at the BPS Research Board Meeting in London.
September 2013:
- On 19th September, PhD researcher Nicola Jones delivered a public engagement talk reporting her PhD findings at the Newcastle Diabetes UK Support Group Meeting.
- Michael is featured on the Salimetrics website as this month's salivary bioscience research expert.
- Michael has been elected Treasurer of the British Psychological Society Psychobiology Section.
- Michael has attended the British Psychological Society Psychobiology Section Annual Conference in Windermere, UK. Michael presented a paper entitled 'Type D (distressed) personality and cardiovascular reactivity to multi-tasking stress', in addition to two posters relating to research on cortisol reactivity in sexual risk-takers and cortisol reactivity to naturalistic stressors.
August 2013:
- Michael has won a travel grant from the International Diabetes Federation to attend the World Diabetes Congress in Melbourne, Australia, from 2nd-6th December 2013.
- On 12th August, Michael delivered an invited talk at the Centre for Human Psychopharmacology, Swinburne University, Melbourne, Australia entitled 'HPA axis function and reactivity to multi-tasking in good versus poor glucoregulators'.
- Olivia Hare has been awarded a Northumbria University PhD studentship to come and work with Mark Wetherell and Michael Smith on stress related to anticipated forthcoming deamnds. Oli will commence her PhD in October.