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School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences

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Skin-mediated interoception, emotion processing, and mental health

Supervisor :

Dr Laura Crucianelli

Deadline :

27th January 2027

Funding :

Queen Mary University of London has partnered with the China Scholarship Council (CSC) to offer a joint scholarship programme to enable Chinese students to study for a PhD programme at Queen Mary.  Under the scheme, Queen Mary will provide scholarships to cover all tuition fees, whilst the CSC will provide living expenses and one return flight ticket to successful applicants. 

 
Applicants must: 

  • Be applying for CSC funding.  
  • Be a citizen and permanent resident of the People’s Republic of China and hold a Chinese passport. 
  • Satisfy all eligibility criteria set out by the CSC and must refer to the CSC website for full details. 
  • Apply to QMUL by 27th January 2027. Late applications will not be considered.  
  • Submit ALL required documentation, including evidence of their English Language ability ahead of the CSC application deadline.  

 

CSC application rules differ slightly for domestic applicants (students applying from China) and overseas applicants (students applying from overseas). Therefore, ALL applicants are advised to see the CSC website for full details on eligibility and conditions on the scholarship.  

 

Project Overview

Interoception, the perception of the physiological status of the body, is related to the generation of bodily feelings and the awareness of ourselves as ‘sentient beings’, informing the organism about its bodily needs to guarantee survival. Previous studies have reported links among interoception, emotion processing, and mental health. Interoception is therefore central to our physical and mental wellbeing. For example, the alignment of interoceptive dimensions (i.e., accuracy, sensibility, awareness) can predict emotional symptoms, such as anxiety.

This project will investigate the relationship between the perception of a certain type of skin-mediated interoceptive signal, i.e., thermosensation, affective touch, o pain and the experience of emotion in healthy participants. The aim will be to better understand the link between mind, brain and body and to provide novel insight into potential risk factors for the development of mental health conditions.

As part of this PhD project, you would be mainly using behavioural and psychophysiological methods to answer the research questions. Depending on your interest, there is, however, scope to also engage in electrophysiological recordings (EEG), virtual reality (VR) and computational modelling of behavioural data. If you are interested in the project, please feel free to get in touch with Dr Laura Crucianelli (l.crucianelli@qmul.ac.uk) for an informal discussion.

 

Research Environment 

How do we integrate signals coming from inside and outside our body to create a coherent sense of self? And how do we combine such signals to perceive the world around us, that is constantly changing? Dr Crucianelli’s lab combines behavioural, psychophysiological, and neuroimaging methods to shed new light on the relationship between mind, brain, and body. To address these research questions, we use a variety of methods, such as bodily illusions, multisensory integration, somatosensory tasks, interoceptive accuracy tasks, virtual reality, and self-reported questionnaires in both healthy and clinical populations.

Further details about Dr Crucianelli are available here and here.

School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences

 

Entry Requirements 

We are looking for candidates to have or expecting to receive a first or upper-second class honours degree and a Master’s degree in an area relevant to the project such as Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience, Mental health, Physiology.

Experience in conducting research and in running behavioural experiments is desirable. Knowledge and experience in analysing behavioural data using SPSS, JASP, MATLAB or R would be highly advantageous but are not required.

You must meet the IELTS requirements for your course and upload evidence before CSC’s application deadline, ideally by 17th March 2027. You are therefore strongly advised to sit an approved English Language test as soon as possible, where your IELTS test must still be valid when you enrol for the programme.

Find out more about our entry requirements here.

 

How to Apply

Formal applications must be submitted through our online form by 27th January 2027 for consideration. Please identify yourself as a ‘CSC Scholar’ in the funding section of the application. 

Applicants are required to submit the following documents: 

  • Your CV 
  • Personal Statement 
  • Evidence of English Language e.g.) IELTS Certificate 
  • Copies of academic transcripts and degree certificates  
  • References 

Find out more about our application process on our SBBS website.

 

Informal enquiries about the project can be sent to Dr Laura Crucianelli at l.crucianelli@qmul.ac.uk. Admissions-related queries can be sent to sbbs-phd-admissions@qmul.ac.uk.

Shortlisted applicants will be invited for a formal interview by the supervisor. If you are successful in your QMUL application, then you will be issued an QMUL Offer Letter, conditional on securing a CSC scholarship along with academic conditions still required to meet our entry requirements.  

Once applicants have obtained their QMUL Offer Letter, they should then apply to CSC for the scholarship with the support of the supervisor.  

For further information, please go to the QMUL China Scholarship Council webpage. 

 

Apply Online

 

See Also

 

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