Dr Sophie Sowden-Carvalho BSc, MSc, PhD, AFHEA

Dr Sophie Sowden-Carvalho

School of Psychology
Assistant Professor in Psychology

Contact details

Telephone
0121 678 1000
Email
s.l.sowden@bham.ac.uk
Twitter

Dr Sophie Sowden-Carvalho is an experimental psychologist and director of the . She is interested in social cognition across the lifespan as well as in a range of clinical conditions including autism, conduct disorder and Parkinson’s Disease, and takes a cross-cultural approach to her research.

To read more about Dr Sowden-Carvalho’s research, visit her lab website .

Qualifications

  • BSc in Psychology (Hons) (University of Surrey)
  • MSc in Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry (King’s College London)
  • PhD in Psychology and Neuroscience (King’s College London)

Biography

Dr Sophie Sowden-Carvalho completed her Bachelor’s degree (in Psychology) at the University of Surrey, followed by her Master’s and doctoral studies at the Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry Centre, King’s College London. She then moved to the 黑料吃瓜网 as a postdoctoral research fellow in 2018 prior to taking up the role of Lecturer in the School of Psychology at the 黑料吃瓜网 in 2021.

Teaching

Introduction to Developmental Psychology

Adolescence Mind and Brain

Postgraduate supervision

Dr Sowden-Carvalho has expertise in experimental measures of social and motor functioning, including facial emotion production and perception, theory of mind, automatic imitation and empathy. She investigates the cognitive underpinnings of both typical and atypical social cognition, including in clinical conditions such as autism, Parkinson’s Disease, eating disorders and conduct disorder.

She is also the director of the , investigating autism-related language preferences, camouflaging and mental health in autistic people around the globe.

Dr Sowden-Carvalho is interested in supervising postgraduate students and PhD students in the following areas (please email if interested in working with Dr Sowden-Carvalho):

-          Social and motor cognition across the lifespan (adolescence, young adulthood and aging)

-          Emotion production and perception in autism spectrum disorder

-          Social cognition and adolescent conduct problems

-          Mental wellbeing in autism spectrum disorder (with cross-cultural perspectives)

Research

My primary research interests are in social and motor functioning across the life span, particularly with respect to neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative conditions such as autism, conduct disorder and Parkinson's disease. I have an interest in creating international research collaborations, having recently acquired funding from both the Experimental Psychology Society and Universitas-21 for cross-cultural projects.

I am the director of the U21 Autism Research Network (https://www.u21autismresearchnetwork.co.uk/). This network brings together autism researchers from 7 universities across the globe with the aim of making society and research more inclusive for autistic individuals. Our research focuses on understanding cross-cultural similarities and differences in the experiences and mental wellbeing of autistic individuals around the globe.

Other activities

Dr Sowden-Carvalho is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy with membership to the following societies:

  • Experimental Psychology Society
  • British Neuroscience Association
  • European Society for Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. 

Publications

Highlight publications

Keating, CT, Hickman, L, Leung, J, Monk, R, Montgomery, A, Heath, H & Sowden, S 2022, '', Autism Research.

Keating, CT, Hickman, L, Geelhand, P, Takahashi, T, Leung, J, Schuster, B, Rybicki, A, Girolamo, TM, Clin, E, Papastamou, F, Belenger, M, Eigsti, I-M, Cook, JL, Kosaka, H, Osu, R, Okamoto, Y & Sowden, S 2021, '', PLoS ONE, vol. 16, no. 12, e0261774.

Sowden, S, Schuster, BA, Keating, CT, Fraser, DS & Cook, JL 2021, '', Emotion, vol. 21, no. 5, pp. 1041-1061.

Sowden, S, Khemka, D & Catmur, C 2021, '', Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology.

Keating, CT, Sowden, S & Cook, JL 2021, '', Autism Research.

Recent publications

Article

Khudiakova, V, Levy, X, Sowden-Carvalho, S & Surtees, ADR 2025, '', Autism in Adulthood.

Keating, CT, Hickman, L, Geelhand, P, Takahashi, T, Leung, J, Monk, R, Schuster, B, Rybicki, A, Girolamo, TM, Clin, E, Papastamou, F, Belenger, M, Eigsti, I-M, Cook, JL, Kosaka, H, Osu, R, Okamoto, Y, Sowden-Carvalho, S & Dey, A (ed.) 2024, '', PLOS One, vol. 19, no. 3, e0299824.

Schuster, B, Sowden-Carvalho, S, Rybicki, A, Fraser, DS, Press, C, Hickman, L, Holland, P & Cook, JL 2024, '', PLoS Biology, vol. 22, no. 6, e3002652.

Hickman, LJ, Sowden-Carvalho, SL, Fraser, DS, Schuster, BA, Rybicki, AJ, Galea, JM & Cook, JL 2024, '', Behavioural Brain Research, vol. 474, 115213.

Keating, CT, Fraser, DS, Sowden, S & Cook, JL 2022, '', Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, vol. 52, no. 4, pp. 1855-1871.

Rybicki, AJ, Sowden, SL, Schuster, B & Cook, JL 2022, '', eLife, vol. 11, e74893.

Schuster, BA, Sowden, S, Rybicki, AJ, Fraser, DS, Press, C, Holland, P & Cook, JL 2022, '', The Journal of Neuroscience, vol. 42, no. 21, pp. 4394-4400.

Schuster, BA, Fraser, DS, van den Bosch, JJF, Sowden, S, Gordon, AS, Huh, D & Cook, JL 2021, '', Scientific Reports, vol. 11, no. 1, 18266.

Corsi, E, Cardi, V, Sowden, S, Coll, M-P, Cascino, G, Ricca, V, Treasure, J, Bird, G & Monteleone, AM 2021, '', International Journal of Eating Disorders, vol. 54, no. 8, pp. 1509-1518.

Sowden, S, Koletsi, S, Lymberopoulos, E, Militaru, E, Catmur, C & Bird, G 2018, '', Consciousness and Cognition, vol. 65, pp. 359-367.

Sowden, S, Koehne, S, Catmur, C, Dziobek, I & Bird, G 2016, '', Autism Research, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 292-300.

Sowden, S, Brewer, R, Catmur, C & Bird, G 2016, '', Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, vol. 42, no. 11, pp. 1687-1692.

Shah, P, Happ茅, F, Sowden, S, Cook, R & Bird, G 2015, '', Child Development, vol. 86, no. 6, pp. 1693-1700.

Preprint

Keating, CT, Hickman, L, Leung, J, Monk, R, Montgomery, A, Heath, H & Sowden, S 2022 '' PsyArXiv.

Review article

Khudiakova, V, Russell, E, Sowden-Carvalho, S & Surtees, ADR 2024, '', Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, vol. 118, 102492.

Expertise

Autism; Communication; Language preferences; Social cognition

Media experience