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Professor Alexander Sumich's Inaugural Lecture

The Embodied Brain

Networking | Public lectures | Seminars

In this lecture, Professor Alexander Sumich will take you on a journey from middle earth to the unknown, through body and mind. From understanding how we perceive things that aren’t there, to healing deep-cut wounds that are very present. Through childhood and adolescence, to understanding later-life diseases. In sadness and in health.

  • From: Thursday 6 March 2025, 6 pm
  • To: Thursday 6 March 2025, 7.30 pm
  • Registration: 5.30 pm
  • Location: Lecture Theatre 4, Newton building, Goldsmith Street, Nottingham, NG1 4BU
  • Booking deadline: Thursday 6 March 2025, 3.00 pm
  • Download this event to your calendar
Past event

Event details

“Caminante no hay camino se hace camino al andar”. In this lecture, Professor Alexander Sumich will take you on a journey from middle earth to the unknown, through body and mind. From understanding how we perceive things that aren’t there, to healing deep-cut wounds that are very present. Through childhood and adolescence, to understanding later-life diseases. In sadness and in health. Professor Sumich’s work in diverse clinical and nonclinical populations has led him to a framework of the “Embodied Brain”; that nexus between the brain and body (the neck-sis, if you like …). Such framework offers mechanistic explanations of how distinct diagnoses emerge from shared etiological risk factors - such as trauma and poor nutrition - and identifies common mechanisms underpinning mental and physical health. It offers alternative paradigms to heal and thrive. Whilst Professor Sumich’s neuroimaging studies delineate implicated brain networks in continuum models of psychopathology, more recent work looks beyond the brain, to the immune and enteric systems to provide novel insight into aetiology, prevention and intervention.

Biography

Professor Alex Sumich has over 25 years of research and teaching experience, which began with predoctoral degrees at the University of Auckland (New Zealand), and a doctorate at Kings College London. After 10 years at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neurosciences (IOPPN), he moved to Nottingham Trent. He is Professor of Mental Health and Biopsychology, directs the Centre for Public and Psychosocial Health at NTU and is associate Editor for the Q1 journal, Personality and Individual Differences (PAID). Prof Sumich has held visiting academic positions at Kings College London and Auckland University of Technology, and enjoys rich, interdisciplinary collaborations throughout NTU and the world. His work primarily seeks to understand psychological and biological mechanisms implicated in mental health across the lifespan, with particular relevance to affect (e.g., depression, empathy, aggression) and perception (e.g., hallucinations). It has been supported by over £2million in funding and resulted in over 130 peer reviewed manuscripts. He has been particularly interested in investigating mechanisms of risk and resilience in psychological, neurological and developmental disorders (e.g., schizophrenia, depression, ADHD, conduct disorder, dementia, psychopathy), and endeavours to determine how pieces of this multi-faceted puzzle that is mental health fit together. The latest pieces have led to a quest to understand peripheral biological systems, including the enteric (gut) and immune systems; how they are affected by life events (e.g., trauma) and lifestyle (nutrition, movement, social contact); and their role in determining neurocognitive function and mental health.

Programme

5.30 pmRegistration and welcome refreshments
6 pmLecture begins
7 pmDrinks Reception
7.30 pmClose

Location details

Room/Building:

Lecture Theatre 4, Newton building

Address:

Goldsmith Street
 Nottingham
 NG1 4BU

Parking:

Take a look at our maps and directions page to find the best route for you to our City campus.

Travel Info:

Take a look at our maps and directions page to find the best route for you to our City campus.

Past event

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