Sheffield Lab
Principal Investigator: Julia May Sheffield
Institution: Vanderbilt University Medical Center (Nashville, TN)
Primary Subfield: Neuroscience
Recruitment Status: ✅ Hiring Postdocs
Research Focus
Persecutory delusions, or the strongly held belief that others intend me harm, are distressing and disabling transdiagnostic symptoms. They are the most common manifestation of delusions in psychotic disorders, present in over 70% of cases, and exist at the extreme end of the paranoia spectrum. Persecutory delusions are a leading cause of suicidal ideation and hospitalization amongst individuals with schizophrenia, yet effective, sustainable treatments remain limited. One potential route towards developing new treatments is identification of cognitive processes that directly contribute their maintenance. Predictive coding is a prominent mechanistic account of delusions based in the process of belief updating, which describes how we learn about the world and develop new beliefs. Development of adaptive, rational beliefs depends on an accurate understanding of the volatility of the environment, or how frequently the probabilities underlying the environment change. Over-estimation of volatility (i.e. inferring that the environment has changed when it has not) drives the formation of new beliefs that are based on faulty inference. There is growing support that aspects of volatility-rel…
Active NIH Awards
- 5R01MH137024-03: Testing the role of belief updating in persecutory delusions (2026)
- 5R01MH137024-02: Testing the role of belief updating in persecutory delusions (2025)
- 5K23MH126313-05: Cognitive mechanisms of delusion severity throughout recovery from an acute psychotic episode: a computational approach (2025)
- 1R01MH137024-01: Testing the role of belief updating in persecutory delusions (2024)
- 3K23MH126313-04S1: Cognitive mechanisms of delusion severity throughout recovery from a psychotic episode: a computational approach (2024)
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