Adela Iliescu
Research student, School of Psychology
- iliescuaf@cardiff.ac.uk
- Tower Building, 70 Park Place, Cardiff, CF10 3AT
Research summary
Genetic studies have demonstrated that specific mutations confer susceptibility for mental disorder such as schizophrenia. There is accumulating evidence that these mutations converge on specific biological pathways involved in the regulation of synaptic plasticity and learning, such as components of the NMDA receptor signalling complex and calcium channel signalling. My research is built on these previous observations and involves examining behaviourally the affective and cognitive processing of rewards in genetically modified animals with key mutations in these pathways.
Investigating the general role of NMDA and Ca+ pathways in learning will elucidate the influence of these pathways in learning, contributing to the understanding of pathogenesis in schizophrenia and other mental disorders.
Teaching summary
2016- Present: Postgraduate tutor for first year undergraduates (leading small-group tutorials and marking practical reports in order to develop students’ scientific practical report-writing skills)
Undergraduate education
2008 – 2014- BSc Psychology, University of Granada, Spain
Postgraduate education
2014-2015 –MSc in Cognitive and Behavioural Neuroscience, University of Granada, Spain
2016-2020 - PhD, Cardiff University
Employment
November 2014 – July 2016: Research associate at University of Granada
Research interests
Funding
School of Psychology, Cardiff University
Research group
Research collaborators
2020
- Honey, R., Dwyer, D. and Iliescu, A. 2020. Elaboration of a model of Pavlovian learning and performance: HeiDI. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition
2018
- Iliescu, A. F.et al. 2018. The nature of phenotypic variation in Pavlovian conditioning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition 44(4), pp. 358-369. (10.1037/xan0000177)
2016
- Recio, S. A.et al. 2016. Perceptual learning in flavor preference conditioning: restricting generalization of acquired preferences between flavors. Learning and Motivation 56, pp. 31-37. (10.1016/j.lmot.2016.09.001)
- Recio, S. A.et al. 2016. The effect of additional exposure to the unique features in a perceptual learning task can be attributed to a location bias. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition 42(2), pp. 228-232. (10.1037/xan0000094)
- Recio, S. A.et al. 2016. The role of instructions in perceptual learning using complex visual stimuli. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition 42(4), pp. 359-365. (10.1037/xan0000113)
2014
- Gámiz, F.et al. 2014. Effects of dietary choline availability on latent inhibition of flavor aversion learning. Nutritional neuroscience 18(6), pp. 275-280. (10.1179/1476830514Y.0000000129)