Dr Raluca Petrican PhD

Personal Statement

My research interests fall within the area of lifespan developmental cognitive neuroscience. I obtained my PhD at the University of Toronto (2011). My doctoral research, which was partially funded by a Canada Graduate Scholarship from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), focused on understanding socio-cognitive alterations in Parkinson’s Disease patients and their spouses. Following my PhD, I worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Rotman Research Institute/University of Toronto (2011-2019). For two years I was funded by a CIHR postdoctoral fellowship to conduct a project on the interpersonal effects of expressive suppression, an extension of my doctoral investigations on emotional expressivity in Parkinson’s Disease patients. Following a lectureship at Cardiff University (2020-2022), I joined the Department of Psychology at the University of Liverpool in October 2022, where I am part of the Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience Group (primary affiliation), as well as of the Lifespan, Health, and Well-Being Group.

I am happy to hear from prospective PhD students interested in the following topics: psychological resilience and lifespan development of episodic memory and cognitive control abilities; the interactive effect of genetic risk and environmental adversity on brain maturation and ageing; the neuroprotective role of social environments.