Dr Stephane De Brito

Supervisor Details

Contact Details

School of Psychology, University of Birmingham

Scientific Background

Dr De Brito is a psychologist and director of the Social, Cognitive, Affective, and Neuroscience (SCAN) lab. Research in the SCAN lab focuses on understanding the mechanistic interplay between the social, cognitive, affective, and neurocognitive factors implicated in the development and persistence of antisocial and aggressive behaviour. A second strand of research examines those aspects among youths who have experienced early adversity.

Scientific Inspiration

Jean-Piaget for its systematic approach to research.

Research Groups

Social, Cognitive, Affective, and Neuroscience (SCAN) lab

Supervision Style

In three words or phrases: Laid-back, supportive, student-centred, and understanding

Provision of Training

I prefer to take responsibility for your technical training at first, leading to more independence later.

Progression Monitoring and Management

We will set out our expectations of your progression together, usually on a monthly basis. If these progression criteria are not met we will always discuss a plan of action together.

Communication

We will have weekly supervision 1:1 meetings and group/lab meetings. I will have an open-door policy except for when I am working on a papers/grants and this will usually be on set days (usually 2) of the week where I try to avoid emails and meetings. I always try to reply to my PhD students’ email within 2 working days at most, but usually faster.

PhD Students can expect scheduled meetings with me:

In a group meeting

At least once per week

In year 1 of PhD study

At least once per week

In year 2 of PhD study

At least once per fortnight

In year 3 of PhD study

At least once per week

These meetings will be mainly face to face, and I am usually contactable for an instant response (if required) on every working day.

Work Pattern

The timing of work in my lab is completely flexible, and (other than attending pre-arranged meetings), I expect students to manage their own time.

Notice Period for Feedback

I need at least 2 weeks' notice to provide feedback on written work of up to 5000 words.

Project Details

Dr De Brito is the supervisor on the below project:

Enhancing Neuroimaging Genetics through Meta-analysis (ENIGMA): Antisocial Behaviour working group

Secondary Supervisor(s):Professor Georgios Gkoutos, Centre for Health Data Science; Professor Peter Tino, Computer Science, University of Birmingham

University of Registration: University of Birmingham

BBSRC Research Themes: Understanding the Rules of Life (Neuroscience and Behaviour)

No longer accepting applications

Project Outline

ENIGMA is an international collaborative effort that brings together over 1400 researchers across 43 countries to better understand brain structure, function, health and disease, based on meta-/mega-analyses of brain imaging and genetic data (http://enigma.ini.usc.edu). There are currently over 50 active ENIGMA working groups covering various fields within psychiatry and neuroscience (see our recent review here). We have recently set-up the ENIGMA Antisocial Behaviour working group on which the student will work. Despite notable advances in recent years, the overall impact and replicability of work in this field has been limited by small sample sizes and heterogeneous participant characteristics, imaging acquisition methods, and data analysis techniques. The harmonized meta-analytical approach of ENIGMA allows one to address these challenges more adequately, gain deeper insights into underlying pathophysiology, and generate more reproducible and generalizable findings.

The ENIGMA Antisocial Behavior initiative will focus on data covering the entire lifespan; this includes structural and functional MRI data on Conduct Problems/Disorder in youths, as well as Antisocial Personality Disorder/Psychopathy in adults. Analyses will not only be focused on disorders and categorical approaches, but also dimensional approaches where neuroimaging/genetics data that can be linked to dimensional measures indexing externalizing behaviors and environmental risk factors (e.g., early childhood adversity) in both clinical/forensic and community samples. The student working on this project will have the opportunity to liaise and network with researchers across the globe. There will be opportunities for training at the ENIGMA headquarter at the University of Southern California as well as with our ENIGMA collaborators in the Netherlands. The project will combine and train the student in methods from psychology, neuroimaging, and computer/data science, which together will put this project at the forefront of research on antisocial behaviour.

References

Staginus, M., […], De Brito, S.A., & Fairchild, G.F. (2023). Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging. 8:6, 609-619.

De Brito, S. A. et al. (2021). Nature Reviews Disease Primers. 7:49.

Thompson, P. M., […] De Brito, S.A., […] ENIGMA Consortium (2020). Translational Psychiatry. 10:100.

Techniques

Advanced multivariate analyses (e.g., machine learning).
Structural and functional MRI.
Meta-analysis and mega-analysis of MRI data.
Programming.

Previous Projects

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