Neuroscience Ireland Conference 2025
Conference Speaker Profile
Dr. Nigel Lyttle
Royal Victoria Hospital;
Royal College of Psychiatry;
Queen’s University Belfast,
Northern Ireland
Talk Title
Stuck in the middle with you: Reflections on Clinical Neuropsychology in practice with the people whose symptoms fall in the conceptual and service gaps between psychiatry and neurology
Talk Abstract
Back in the day, I remember reading a BMJ editorial entitled “The wall between neurology and psychiatry” (Baker, Kale, & Menken, 2002). It had a rousing subtitle: “Advances in neuroscience indicate it's time to tear it down”. But jump forward to 2016, and permit a crossing into the political world, there is another counter-rousing trope, build a “big, beautiful wall”.
Back then, if I thought about working in acute neuropsychology services within a Regional Neuroscience as a psychologist, I might have thought about the careful “objective” examination, observation, and psychometric testing, and the unique added value to neuro-diagnostic armoury to understand brain dysfunction. Adding understanding that a brain image or a triplet repeat size cannot tell us about that individual. This was not entirely untrue, but it was also safe behind the wall. It was only part of the story.
Down on the borderlands of clinical practice, it all gets a little more confusing. What of the story of an elderly Parkinson’s Disease patient and their life partner, who experienced a sudden destructive alternation in sexual preference and behaviour, when prescribed a dopamine agonist?
What of the young woman whose prolonged convulsing seizures were so deep, they lacked any pain response to a bruising sternal rub, and yet afterwards could ask me if they stop doing that?
What of the observation that young people of the digital generation and culture demonstrate epileptic automatisms that mimic screen swiping behaviours never previously documented?
Speaker Biography
I am a Consultant Clinical Psychologist specialising in Neuropsychology. I was appointed in 2017 as Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Clinical Lead for Adult Acute Neuropsychological Services, Regional Neurosciences Centre, Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH), Belfast Health and Social Care Trust (BHSCT). I attained a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from the Queen's University of Belfast (QUB) in 2005 before advancing onto the Doctorate in Clinical Psychology training programme (DClinPsych) at QUB, graduating in 2008.
I have a career-long interest in experimental cognitive psychology, clinical neuropsychology and neuro-rehabilitation, completing an undergraduate thesis on neurocognitive development of mathematical abilities in children, and being recognised nationally with the Award for Psychology conferred by the British Psychological Society (BPS). My doctoral research examined post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), dissociation and memory function. I am a guest lecturer for the QUB Clinical Psychology training programme since 2011, covering specialist aspects of the neuropsychology curriculum including epileptic seizures, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis and Functional Neurological Disorders (FND). I contribute teaching on neuropsychology as part of the Royal College of Psychiatry (Northern Ireland) core training programme and QUB medical undergraduate programme. I received a recognition award in 2016 from FND Hope International for pioneering service user involvement and advocating for the commissioning of services for FND in Northern Ireland.
Research bio: I am an active clinical research supervisor for the QUB DClinPsych programme with current active projects including studies of Lived Experience during pregnancy for women living with Functional (Non-epileptic) Seizures, Experience of professionals who provide care for woman with functional seizures during pregnancy, development of a novel cognitive screening test for Parkinson’s Disease, and long-term outcomes following NMDA receptor encephalitis.
Previous projects include Adaption of Psychotherapy for those living with cognitive disorder, Clinicians' implicit and explicit attitudes about the legitimacy of functional neurological disorders correlate with referral decisions, Attentional Bias in Non-Epileptic Attack Disorder, Implicit and explicit attitudes of Health Care Professionals’ towards people living with HIV in a low HIV-prevalence society, the subjective experience of non-epileptic seizures: an interpretative phenomenological study, neurocognitive outcome following Stereotactic Radiosurgery and the subjective experience of non-epileptic seizures in adolescents & their families: an interpretative phenomenological study.
Recent publications include: Craig, S., (2025) A systematic review of the effectiveness of digital cognitive assessments of cognitive impairment in Parkinson’s disease. Applied Neuropsychology, Adult. Begley, R., et al (2023). Clinicians' implicit and explicit attitudes about the legitimacy of functional neurological disorders correlate with referral decisions. British Journal of Health Psychology. Brownlee, N. et al (2020). Neurocognitive outcomes in adults following cerebral hypoxia: A systematic literature review. NeuroRehabilitation.