Livia Tomova – Principal Investigator
Dr. Tomova is an Assistant Professor (Lecturer) in Psychology based at the Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC). She is also a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellow. Her work focuses on studying how experiences of social disconnection (for example, isolation and loneliness) impact cognition and brain function during adolescent development. She is also interested in how digital social interactions impact young people’s behaviour, cognition and brain function. Prior to joining the faculty at Cardiff University, she was a Henslow Research Fellow working in the Blakemore Lab at Cambridge University. Before that, she worked as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Saxelab at MIT. She earned her PhD in Psychology in the Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit at University of Vienna. Outside of her life as an academic, she enjoys exploring the beaches in Wales with her husband and daughter, yoga and reading sci-fi books.
Dr Tomova’s publications can be found on Google Scholar.
Email: tomoval@cardiff.ac.uk
Bluesky: @livia-tomova.bsky.social
Thaïs Marques – PhD student
Thaïs is a PhD student in the Developing Social Minds Lab, based at the Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Her research interests
include adolescent brain development, brain functioning, and cognition, and their interplay with social media. Thaïs’ current research applies experimental methods to explore the effects of specific social media features on teenagers’ cognition and brain function, in relation to teens’ increased reward sensitivity. Holding a Psychology BA (Toulouse University, France) and a Cognitive Neuropsychology and Neuroimaging MSc (Bordeaux University, France), Thaïs developed a passion for science communication that she pursues as part of her PhD research and in her free time as an active member of the CUBRIC’s “Brain Games”. Outside of the lab, like any French person, she loves eating and trying out new restaurants around Cardiff. She also spends a lot of her free time reading and crafting/doodling.
Email: MarquesTC@cardiff.ac.uk
Linkedin: Thaïs Marquès
Marta Barbieri – PhD student
Marta is a PhD student in the School of Psychology at Cardiff University. She’s fascinated by the psychological and neural effects of loneliness during adolescence, a crucial stage of emotional and brain development. Her current project combines self-report measures and neuroimaging to investigate how adolescents experience loneliness, and how acute episodes of social isolation affect brain function. By first exploring adolescents’ own definitions and perceptions of loneliness, she grounds the interpretation of MRI data in their lived experience. Before starting her PhD, Marta completed a BA in Genomics at the University of Bologna and a MA in Neurobiology at the University of Pavia. Her interest in neuroimaging led her to the Cognitive Affective Neuroscience Lab at the Donders Institute (Nijmegen, NL), where she undertook a 9-month internship investigating how stress hormones influence emotional memory. In her free time, Marta enjoys spending time outdoors reading in the sun, camping by the sea, snowboarding, or surfing. She also loves baking for special occasions and experimenting with hair dye you might catch her with a new color a little too often!
Email: barbierim1@cardiff.ac.uk
Linkedin: Marta Barbieri
Amy Orwin – PhD student
Amy is a PhD student at Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), working under the supervision of Professor Derek Jones and Dr Livia Tomova on the Wellcome Trust Discovery Award titled ‘Deep Microstructural Phenotyping of the Developing Brain’. Her research explores how measure of brain microstructure can be used to predict specific aspects of adolescent development, such as age, pubertal status and cognition. Amy is particularly passionate about understanding individual differences in the development of the adolescent brain, and she is keen to explore explanations for this variation.
Amy holds a BSc in Psychology with Professional Placement from Cardiff University and completed her placement year at CUBRIC, assisting research on cognitive and cortical connectivity differences in young people with high-risk copy number variants for schizophrenia. Outside of research, she enjoys cooking, exploring new places, and staying active through dancing and running.
Email: OrwinAL@cardiff.ac.uk
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-orwin
Noor Arwan – MSc student & Research Assistant
Noor is an MSc Psychology student at Cardiff University, with research interests in sensory perception, body ownership, neurodivergence, emotional regulation and adolescent mental health. She hopes to explore transdiagnostic approaches to neuropsychiatric conditions and the role of embodiment in self-concept. Noor is currently investigating how adolescents use social media and the impacts of social media use on adolescent cognition.
She holds a BA in Film Studies from King’s College London and an MA in Anthropology of Development and Social Transformation from the University of Sussex, and is particularly drawn to interdisciplinary methods that integrate lived experience with clinical and social relevance. Outside of research, she enjoys music production, wandering through cafés, and browsing independent bookstores around Cardiff.
Ira Ovalekar – Undergraduate Research Assistant
Ira is a Final Year BSc Psychology student at Cardiff University. Her research interests lie in exploring how experiences of social stress and adversity impact brain development and adolescent wellbeing. Ira completed her placement year at the Yale Social Cognitive Development Lab where she explored how emotion stimuli and fairness judgements influence children’s resource distribution behaviour. She has also supported research projects in safety learning, interpersonal trauma, social cognition and perinatal mental health. Outside of research Ira can be found drawing and painting, working on Theatre Production and Design teams or making cafe trips with friends.
Alumni
Leon Scott – Undergraduate Research Assistant
Leon is an Undergraduate student working towards a BSc in Computer Science, with an interest in both Computer Science and Psychology, and previous study in both. He is fascinated by Machine Learning and its applications to real world problems, Cyber Security and its role in the world, and the importance of data in the modern era. His current research is in investigating the representation of reward and loss in the adolescent brain, by using machine learning techniques on fMRI images. In his spare time, he enjoys playing and watching chess, reading, and going on walks.
Developing Social Minds Lab 