Dr Preethi Premkumar

I am a Senior Lecturer in Psychology. I was a lecturer and senior lecturer at Nottingham Trent University from 2010-2020. I obtained my PhD at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience of King's College London in 2011. Earlier, I conducted systematic reviews for the national clinical guidelines for the treatment of mental disorders at the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence and the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

My expertise lies in the neuroscience of family relationships. I study how criticism and rejection are perceived in family relationships and their impact on mental health. Designing novel experiments on family communication has allowed me to collect data using functional magnetic resonance imaging and electroencephalography, and discover how sensitivity to criticism and praise in families can link to schizotypy, depression, aggression and substance misuse. My PhD was titled, ‘Neural, clinical and neuropsychological predictors of responsiveness to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy in Schizophrenia’.
My current research involves designing virtual-reality therapy for hearing voices and virtual-reality exposure therapy for social anxiety. My collaborator and I have designed Depict VR, a virtual-reality application for building relationships among young people with mental distress and their trusted confidante. Preivously, on another project, we applied biofeedback in virtual-reality exposure therapy for social anxiety. I recently conducted two systematic reviews on disability and social support and disability and relationships/loneliness for the Cabinet Office.

I am supervising four PhD students. One PhD student is studying parental perceptions of play in education among Nigerian parents in Nigeria and the U.K. Another PhD student is examining the consumer behaviour towards plant-based material in food packaging. Another PhD student is examining how healthcare professionals communicate with people who have an acquired speech impairment. And another PhD student is studying how Artificial Intelligences makes moral decisions about mental health in healthcare services. As an external supervisor, a PhD student is examining the role of perceived criticism and praise and sleep in schizotypal personality traits. I am keen to supervise on topics related to family relationships, mental health and equality, diversity and inclusion.
In 2024, I led the DISCOVerY Project and investigated the impact of the COVID pandemic on the career progress of disabled researchers and those minoritized by race, gender and caring responsibilities.