Dr Theodoros Karapanagiotidis, Lecturer in Psychology, School of Psychology, University of Sussex
Theodoros received his bachelor’s degree in Physics from the department of Physics at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.
He has an MSc and PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging from the Department of Psychology at the University of York.
Our 60-second interview with Theodoros:
What do you do in the field of mental health?
My work involves exploring how our everyday thoughts relate to brain functioning, and how they can both ultimately affect our mental health.
What do you find most rewarding and inspiring in this work?
My inspiration comes from trying to understand the still uncharted human brain and how it supports everything we know, experience, and do. My reward is when our findings take us another small step closer to this universal goal.
What is the most challenging or complicated aspect of this work?
Every brain and person is unique, and while we are making good progress on how particular thought and neural patterns relate to mental health symptoms and conditions, there are still a lot of things to learn and discover.
What impact do you hope your work is having- or can potentially have?
My hope is that translating theoretical findings on how our brain and mind works into clinical practice can have a significant impact on improving the quality of life of mental health patients.
Could you share with us one piece of advice that you follow for your own mental health?
I became a strong believer of the phrase “a healthy mind in a healthy body” (“Mens sana in corpore sano”) over the last few years. Plenty of recent evidence highlight the significant effects the body can have on brain function and therefore on mood and mental health. I have found that even small things like going for a nice walk can have a big effect on my well-being.