Lara is an MRC DTP PhD student in the Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences investigating how a history of psychosis shapes neurobiology and phenomenology of religious experience in Pentecostals. Her research is multidisciplinary, drawing on psychology, cognitive neuroscience, philosophy, and anthropology of religion, and uses a range of methods including phenomenological interviews, neuroimaging, and computational linguistic analysis. Previously, Lara completed a BSc in Psychology at King’s College London. She then received NIHR funding for a Pre-Doctoral Fellowship, during which she completed an MSc in Applied Statistical Modelling and Health Informatics and worked as a research assistant in the Departments of Psychology and of Biostatistics and Health Informatics at King’s College London.

Research Interests

• Phenomenology
• Altered self-experiences
• Belief
• Cultural neuroscience
• Statistical modelling and AI

Research Groups

Cultural and Social Neuroscience Research Group