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Profile – Caitlin Illingworth, The University of Sheffield

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19/07/2024

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Caitlin Illingworth

Name:

Caitlin Illingworth

Job Title:

PhD Student

Place of work / study:

The University of Sheffield

Area of Research:

Diagnostic tools for Dementia across Demographics

How is your research funded:

University of Sheffield

Tell us a little about yourself:

I graduated from the University of Bath in 2023 with a BSc in Psychology. As part of my degree, I undertook a year-long work placement year at Brown University’s language and thought lab investigating developmental psycholinguistics with children aged 18 months to 8 years old. This evoked a passion for language which, combined with my focus on cognitive neuroscience during my undergraduate, led me to join the CognoSpeak project working with Dr Daniel Blackburn at the University of Sheffield, where I worked as a Research Assistant. I am now undertaking a PhD with Dr Blackburn as my primary supervisor, investigating brain activity during verbal fluency tasks in monolinguals and bilinguals with the aim of developing a more appropriate memory assessment tool for patients across different language backgrounds.

Tell us a fun fact about yourself:

I am the reigning champion of my village’s annual baking competition

Why did you choose to work in dementia research?

I was brought up hearing about the neurological basis of dementia, but I was always curious about how it affects the mind rather than the brain. There are few conditions as common as Dementia that have such a profound, progressive impact on people’s ability to think, talk, and be themselves, a process I witnessed with my own Grandad. I recognise that a single researcher can only make a limited difference to our understanding of what we can do to help combat Dementia, but I chose to work in Dementia research as want to be able to contribute towards our collective fight against this disease.