Image: Dr David Mothersill
Dr David Mothersill says there’s still so much we don’t know about the brain but tech innovation makes it an exciting time to be a researcher in this field.
New research from the National College of Ireland (NCI) investigated mental health among third-level students during Covid-19. Using surveys and data analysis, the team found negative mental health outcomes when students reported social isolation and called for future research to find ways of increasing social engagement among students attending online and blended third-level courses.
One of the research authors is Dr David Mothersill, a neuroscientist and associate professor at NCI. He has a PhD from Trinity College Dublin and has lectured in the University of Galway, where he was programme director of the MSc in clinical neuroscience.
His research focuses on neuroimaging, mental health and stigma. In 2022, he contributed to a Nature article that combined research on 125,000 brain scans from around the world to, as Mothersill explains, “show how our brains grow rapidly in the early years of our lives and then slowly shrink as we age”. This research provides an important open-source benchmark for brain development which is vital for identifying and treating abnormalities.
Tell us about your current research.
In 2022, I launched the Stigma and Mental Health Ireland (SAMI) Lab with my colleagues Dr April Hargreaves and Dr Gerard Loughnane in NCI. Our mission is to remove barriers to mental health worldwide.
We are currently researching knowledge, attitudes and behaviours towards people with mental health difficulties across the Irish population.
In collaboration with international colleagues S Benedict Dossen of The Carter Center and Ikenna Ebuenyi, assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh, we are also examining mental health stigma in Liberia, a country in Africa with a similar size population to Ireland. We are comparing stigma across the two countries to better understand whether and how attitudes towards mental health difficulties might differ across different geographical locations.
In your opinion, why is your research important?
A big problem for many people experiencing mental health difficulties is stigma. For example, negative attitudes and behaviours towards people experiencing mental health difficulties can affect employment, access to accommodation, and the emotional impact of stigma can be a profound source of suffering.
In young people, mental health stigma is also a barrier to seeking help, which is particularly concerning given that most mental health conditions develop in adolescence and early adulthood. Better understanding of mental health stigma can help us design new and innovative stigma reduction strategies like educational programmes and advertising campaigns.
What inspired you to become a researcher?
I was always interested in the natural world which led me to do my first degree in zoology. Around this time, I was drawn to neuroscience, an area that has gone through rapid changes in my lifetime due to technologies such as functional magnetic resonance imaging.
There is so much we still do not understand about the mind, brain and behaviour, and we are living through an exciting time, due to technological innovation, but also improved research practices such as open science and sharing of data.
What are some of the biggest challenges or misconceptions you face as a researcher in your field?
One of the biggest challenges for researchers at all levels is securing research funding. Competition for existing funding calls is extremely high, and many researchers will apply for several grants and be rejected before they are successful. This can be highly stressful, especially for early-career researchers whose continued employment in the sector might be tied to grant success.
Do you think public engagement with science and data has changed in recent years?
It is great to see increased public engagement with science and data in recent years, and the success of books and podcasts on these subjects shows that there is a huge appetite for knowledge and learning.
People can see that science isn’t something separate from them but is something that often directly influences their lives.
In particular, it is good to see researchers raising awareness about the scientific method itself, cognitive biases and critical thinking.
In a time when we are exposed to unprecedented information, it is critically important to not just learn about science, but how to think in a rational and scientific way.
How do you encourage engagement with your own work?
An important part of our work on mental health stigma is sharing this research with the general public. We have presented this research to organisations such as DePaul Ireland, a US podcast called Adam Learns Random Stuff, and as part of National College of Ireland’s Culture Night events.
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