King's College London

Many young people living with psychosis, bipolar disorder, or depression experience difficulties with memory, attention, planning, organisation, and problem-solving. These cognitive difficulties can have a significant impact on education, employment, relationships, and everyday life, and often persist even when other mental health symptoms have improved.

Cognitive remediation is a psychological intervention that helps people develop thinking skills and learn practical strategies to apply these skills in everyday situations. Research has shown that cognitive remediation can improve cognitive functioning, support recovery, and enhance day-to-day functioning. Despite its proven benefits, access to cognitive remediation remains limited because it usually requires regular support from a trained therapist.

The CIRCuiTS™ AI project aims to increase access to cognitive remediation by developing and evaluating an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-supported version of CIRCuiTS™, an established cognitive remediation programme. By combining clinical expertise, lived experience perspectives, and advances in artificial intelligence, the project seeks to create a safe, effective, and scalable approach that can support young people experiencing cognitive difficulties associated with severe mental health conditions.

The project brings together researchers, clinicians, people with lived experience, and leading technology partners. CIRCuiTS™ AI is being developed in collaboration with lived experience experts from the McPin Foundation and artificial intelligence specialists from HelloSelf, helping to ensure that the intervention is both user-centred and suitable for implementation at scale.

 

Aims

Over five years, the project will:

1. Develop and refine an AI-supported version of CIRCuiTS™.
2. Evaluate its effectiveness, safety, user experience, and value for money through a large clinical trial.
3. Create and test an online training programme for therapists.
4. Explore how the intervention can be successfully implemented across NHS, charitable, and independent mental health services.

Together, these activities will help us understand whether AI can support wider access to effective Cognitive Remediation while maintaining high standards of clinical care and user experience.

 

Our researchers and collaborators

• Professor Matteo Cella - Professor of Clinical Psychology
• Professor Dame Til Wykes - Professor of Clinical Psychology & Rehabilitation
• Professor Richard A Emsley - Academic Director of the King’s Clinical Trials Unit
• Dr Rumina Taylor – Chief Clinical Officer & Consultant Clinical Psychologist, HelloSelf; Consultant Clinical Psychologist, PICuP Clinic, SLaM and IoPPN
• Dr Huajie (Lily) Jin – Reader in Health Economics
• Alex Kenny - Senior Public Involvement in Research Officer, The McPin Foundation
• Steve Ireland – Head of AI and Machine Learning, HelloSelf
• Charlie Wells – Co-founder and CEO of HelloSelf
• Dr Elizabeth (Lizzy) Tuudah – Research Project Coordinator
• Dr Francis Lammas – Research Clinical Psychologist
• Katie Owens – Research Assistant