Brain stimulation, fraud, and the RIOT Science Club | Sam Westwood

Samuel Westwood is Senior Lecturer in Psychology (Education) at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King's College London.

Samuel joined King’s College London in 2023. He specialises in neuromodulation, neurodevelopmental disorders, and open and reproducible research practices. His work focuses on providing best practice guidance in translational cognitive neuroscience and psychiatric research. 

Samuel earned a degree in BSc Psychology at the University of Birmingham, then went on to achieve a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience at Aston University, after which he was a post-doc at King’s in the Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. Before joining King’s, Samuel was a lecturer at the University of Westminster and the University of Wolverhampton.

OUTLINE:

0:00 - Highlights

2:06 - Intro

3:01 - How Sam got interested in brain stimulation

5:25 - Publishing null results from transcranial direct current stimulation

10:49 - Conducting a systematic review of the field

13:31 - Methodological issues across types of brain stimulation

16:11 - Which brain stimulation/clinical indication combination are most promising?

24:05 - Clinical trial of transcranial direct current stimulation and cognitive training for ADHD in adolescent boys

31:51 - Personalized approaches to brain stimulation and cognitive training

37:23 - Pursuing metascience more broadly

42:34 - Founding the RIOT Science Club

48:07 - Most desired structural changes to science over the next 5-10 years

51:15 - Dealing with scientific fraud, incentives

57:11 - Advice for young scientists

59:25 - Forthcoming developments and where Sam's work can be found online

1:00:58 - Outro