Phone:: (023) 8059 1375
Email:: V.C.Brandt@soton.ac.uk

Dr Valerie Catherine Brandt MPhil, Diploma, PhD (Dr.rer.nat.)

Lecturer

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Dr Valerie Brandt is a lecturer in Psychology at the University of Southampton.

Can tics and Tourette’s syndrome be viewed as a sensory disorder (tics are driven by premonitory urges) rather than a motor disorder?

Why do tics persist only in a small number of children who are diagnosed with a tic disorder and what can we learn from this?

During my Diploma studies in Hamburg, Germany, I completed an MPhil at the University of Cambridge in 2010 and then returned to Hamburg to finish my Diploma degree. I received my PhD (with honours – summa cum laude) from the University zu Luebeck (Germany) in 2015, working with Prof. Alexander Muenchau to apply and test psychological information processing theories in relation with Tourette’s syndrome. I have also started part-time clinical training in 2014.

Research

Responsibilities

Publications

Teaching

Contact

Research interests

I am mainly interested in tics and Tourette’s syndrome. Tics are simple, sudden and repetitive movements or vocalisations and are common in children.

My research covers various aspects of Tics. I am interested in basic processes, for instance, how motor learning and imitation processes are affected by having tics or how attention to different aspects of tics can temporarily alter symptom severity in patients.

Another fascinating aspect of Tourette’s syndrome is the finding that tics are not entirely involuntary phenomena. Patients often describe that they tic in response to an increasing urge to tic. I am interested in studying these premonitory urges in more detail (including neural aspects, using TMS, EEG or fMRI) in patients with tics but also in related disorders, e.g. obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Lastly, I am interested in understanding how current (behavioural) therapeutic methods work and in developing new therapeutic methods for tics.

Research Projects

Finding correlates of premonitory urges in Tourette patients (using fMRI, pupil width)

The effects of attention modulation on tic and urge severity

Habitual and synaptic learning processes in patients with tics

Comparing different forms of behavioural inhibition and control in children with tics (using psychological behavioural paradigms)

Research group

Centre for Innovation in Mental Health (CiMH)

Member of the Athena Swan Self-Assessment team for Psychology
Member of the Outreach team, responsible for Linkedin
Chair of the CIMH meetings
Editorial board member for “Scientific Reports”
Member of the Ethic Committee Reviewers group

Articles

Petrou, V., Bodmer, B., Brandt, V., Baumung, L., Roessner, V., Muenchau, A., & Beste, C. (2018). Altered perception-action binding modulates inhibitory control in Gilles de la Tourette syndrome. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.
Tübing, J., Gigla, B., Brandt, V., Verrel, J., Weissbach, A., Beste, C., ... Bäumer, T. (2018). Associative plasticity in supplementary motor area - motor cortex pathways in Tourette syndrome. Scientific Reports, 8, 1-8. [11984]. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-30504-8
Junker, J., Brandt, V., Berman, B. M., Vidailhet, M., Roze, E., Weissbach, A., ... Brüggemann, N. (2018). Predictors of alcohol responsiveness in dystonia. Neurology.
Brandt, V., Hermanns, J., Beck, C., Bäumer, T., Zurowski, B., & Münchau, A. (2018). The temporal relationship between premonitory urges and covert compulsions in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Psychiatry Research. DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2018.01.041
Brandt, V. C., Stock, A-K., Münchau, A., & Beste, C. (2017). Evidence for enhanced multi-component behaviour in Tourette syndrome - an EEG study. Scientific Reports, 7, [7722]. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-08158-9
Brandt, V. C., Herrmann, K., Kerner auch Koerner, J., & Münchau, A. (2017). Perceived and real tic suppression ability and its relationship to impulsivity. Movement Disorders, 32(12), 1795-1796. DOI: 10.1002/mds.27202
Beste, C., Tübing, J., Seeliger, H., Bäumer, T., Brandt, V., Stock, A-K., & Münchau, A. (2016). Altered perceptual binding in Gilles de la Tourette syndrome. Cortex, 83, 160-166. DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2016.07.015
Brandt, V. C., Beck, C., Sajin, V., Anders, S., & Münchau, A. (2016). Convergent Validity of the PUTS. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 7, 1-7. [51]. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2016.00051
Brandt, V. C., & Muenchau, A. (2016). Evidence of different neural pathways for motor and vocal tic-like expressions in monkeys. Movement Disorders, 31(7), 971. DOI: 10.1002/mds.26640
Schunke, O., Schöttle, D., Vettorazzi, E., Brandt, V., Kahl, U., Bäumer, T., ... Münchau, A. (2016). Mirror me: imitative responses in adults with autism. Autism, 20(2), 134-44. DOI: 10.1177/1362361315571757
Brandt, V. C., Beck, C., Sajin, V., Baaske, M. K., Bäumer, T., Beste, C., ... Münchau, A. (2016). Temporal relationship between premonitory urges and tics in Gilles de la Tourette syndrome. Cortex, 77, 24-37. DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2016.01.008
Brandt, V. C., Patalay, P., Bäumer, T., Brass, M., & Münchau, A. (2016). Tics as a model of over-learned behavior-imitation and inhibition of facial tics. Movement Disorders, 31(8), 1155-1162. DOI: 10.1002/mds.26607
Weissbach, A., Bäumer, T., Rosales, R., Lee, L. V., Brüggemann, N., Domingo, A., ... Münchau, A. (2015). Neurophysiological fingerprints of X-linked dystonia-parkinsonism: A model basal ganglia disease. Movement Disorders, 30(6), 873-575. DOI: 10.1002/mds.26224
Misirlisoy, E., Brandt, V., Ganos, C., Tübing, J., Münchau, A., & Haggard, P. (2015). The relation between attention and tic generation in Tourette syndrome. Neuropsychology, 29(4), 658-665. DOI: 10.1037/neu0000161
Kahl, U., Schunke, O., Schöttle, D., David, N., Brandt, V., Bäumer, T., ... Ganos, C. (2015). Tic phenomenology and tic awareness in adults with autism. Movement Disorders Clinical Practice, 2(3), 237-242. DOI: 10.1002/mdc3.12154
Brandt, V. C., Lynn, M. T., Obst, M., Brass, M., & Münchau, A. (2015). Visual feedback of own tics increases tic frequency in patients with Tourette's syndrome. Cognitive Neuroscience, 6(1), 1-7. DOI: 10.1080/17588928.2014.954990
Ganos, C., Asmuss, L., Bongert, J., Brandt, V., Münchau, A., & Haggard, P. (2015). Volitional action as perceptual detection: predictors of conscious intention in adolescents with tic disorders. Cortex, 64, 47-54. DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2014.09.016
Brandt, V. C., Niessen, E., Ganos, C., Kahl, U., Bäumer, T., & Münchau, A. (2014). Altered synaptic plasticity in Tourette's syndrome and its relationship to motor skill learning. PLoS ONE, 9(5), [e98417]. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0098417
Brandt, V. C., Bergström, Z. M., Buda, M., Henson, R. N. A., & Simons, J. S. (2014). Did I turn off the gas? Reality monitoring of everyday actions. Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience, 14(1), 209-19. DOI: 10.3758/s13415-013-0189-z
Ganos, C., Kühn, S., Kahl, U., Schunke, O., Brandt, V., Bäumer, T., ... Münchau, A. (2014). Prefrontal cortex volume reductions and tic inhibition are unrelated in uncomplicated GTS adults. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 76(1), 84-87. DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2013.10.014
Ganos, C., Kahl, U., Brandt, V., Schunke, O., Bäumer, T., Thomalla, G., ... Kühn, S. (2014). The neural correlates of tic inhibition in Gilles de la Tourette syndrome. Neuropsychologia, 65, 297-301. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2014.08.007

Book Chapters

Brandt, V., & Münchau, A. (2017). Tics and Tourette Syndrome. In C. Falup-Pecurariu, J. Ferreira, P. Martinez-Martin, & K. R. Chaudhuri (Eds.), Movement Disorders Curricula (1 ed., pp. 291-302). Springer Vienna. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-7091-1628-9
Brandt, V., & Münchau, A. (2015). Tics. In H. Reichmann (Ed.), Neuropsychiatric Symptoms of Movement Disorders (1 ed., pp. 223-260). (Neuropsychiatric Symptoms of Neurological Disease). Springer International. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-09537-0

I am the module lead for Current Issues in Clinical Psychology (PSYC3002)

I also teach on the following modules: Current Topics in Developmental Psychopathology (PSYC28077), tutoring (PSYC1005)

Dr Valerie Catherine Brandt
Building 44 Highfield Campus University of Southampton SO17 1BJ

Room Number:44/3085

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