Staff profile

Career

I am an Associate Professor and member of the Developmental Science research group at Durham. I'm also a fellow of the Institute for Medical Humanities and the Wolfson Institute for Health and Wellbeing.

From 2012 to 2022 I was a member of Hearing the Voice, an interdisciplinary project that explored the topic of voice-hearing (or auditory verbal hallucinations). Joining originally as a postdoctoral researcher, I was one of six co-applicants for Hearing the Voice's second Wellcome award in 2015, and in 2020 I became Associate Director of the project (working alongside PI Charles Fernyhough and Co-Director Angela Woods). The project is internationally recognised for its interdisciplinary approach and contribution to psychosis research, which produced over 200 outputs. In 2019 we launched Understanding Voices, the world's largest web resource for supporting people with distressing voices. 

I am the co-founder and co-chair of the Early Career Hallucinations Research (ECHR) group, a network of over 250 ECRs in 24 countries conducting research on hallucinations and related topics. 

Prior to working at Durham I completed my PhD in Psychology at the University of Edinburgh, and worked as a Research Co-ordinator for Lime Trees Child & Adolescent Mental Health team in the NHS in York.

Research

My research is broadly focused on mental health and neurodiversity. This includes work on psychosis and autism primarily, but has also involved research on inner speech, mental imagery, executive functioning, categorisation, and perception. My most recent research has concerned "felt presence": the sensation that someone is present without any sensory cues. Such experiences occur in psychosis, Parkinson's, epilepy, bereavement, survival situations, and around the boundaries of sleep. 

Reviewing & Editing

Ad-Hoc Reviewing: Autism Research, Biological Psychiatry, British Journal of Psychiatry, Cognitive Development, Cognitive Science, Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, Consciousness & Cognition, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, Human Brain Mapping, Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders, Journal of Behavior Therapy & Experimental Psychiatry, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, Journal of Psychiatric Research, Lancet Psychiatry, Neuroimage: Clinical, Neuroscience of Consciousness, Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, Psychological Medicine, Psychology & Psychotherapy, Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, Research in Developmental Disabilites, Review of Philosophy & Psychology, Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, Schizophrenia Bulletin, Translational Psychiatry

Editing: Guest Editor, Review of Philosophy & Psychology, "Voices and Thoughts in Psychosis" Special Issue.

• Felt presence
• Inner speech and mental imagery
• Language and executive function
• Psychosis and voice-hearing
• Autism and neurodiversity

• 2016: International Consortium on Hallucinations Research, North American Satellite Meeting, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL.: Invited speaker. Talk: “Searching for Speech and Language in Voice-Hearers Without Diagnoses”. 27th September 2016
• 2016: Royal College of Psychiatrists, Spirituality and Psychiatry Special Interest Group Conference “Hallucinations and Spiritual Experience: Voices, Visions and Revelation”: Invited speaker. Talk: “Voices and the Etheric: A Research Study of Spiritualist Experience”. 25th November 2016
• 2016: Wellcome Trust Small Arts Award Committee: Scientific Advisor
• 2015: International Consortium on Hallucinations Research, Hearing Voices and Hallucinations: Research, Practice and Recovery, St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne VA.: Invited speaker. Talk: “Inner Speech”. 21st October 2015.

Journal Article

• Corlett, P. R., Horga, G., Fletcher, P. C., Alderson-Day, B., Schmack, K., & Powers, A. R. (in press). Hallucinations and Strong Priors. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 23(2), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2018.12.001
• Alderson-Day, B., & Pearson, A. (2023). What can neurodiversity tell us about inner speech, and vice versa? A theoretical perspective. Cortex, 168, 193-202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2023.08.008
• Yates, K., Lång, U., Peters, E. M., Wigman, J. T., Boyda, D., McNicholas, F., …Kelleher, I. (2023). Hallucinations as a risk marker for suicidal behaviour in individuals with a history of sexual assault: a general population study with instant replication. Psychological Medicine, 53(10), 4627-4633. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291722001532
• Alderson-Day, B., Moseley, P., Mitrenga, K., Moffatt, J., Lee, R., Foxwell, J., …Fernyhough, C. (2023). Varieties of felt presence? Three surveys of presence phenomena and their relations to psychopathology. Psychological Medicine, 53(8), 3692-3700. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291722000344
• Barnby, J. M., Park, S., Baxter, T., Rosen, C., Brugger, P., & Alderson-Day, B. (2023). The felt-presence experience: from cognition to the clinic. The Lancet Psychiatry, 10(5), 352-362. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366%2823%2900034-2
• Alderson-Day, B., Corlett, P., Deeley, Q., Dupois, D., Lifshitz, M., Moseley, P., …Powers, A. (2023). Learning to discern the voices of gods, spirits, tulpas and the dead. Schizophrenia Bulletin: The Journal of Psychoses and Related Disorders, 49(Supplement_1), S3-S12. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbac005
• Dudley, R., Watson, F., O'Grady, L., Aynsworth, C., Dodgson, G., Common, S., …Fernyhough, C. (2023). Prevalence and nature of multi-sensory and multi-modal hallucinations in people with first episode psychosis. Psychiatry Research, 319(2023), Article 114988. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2022.114988
• Moseley, P., Powell, A., Woods, A., Fernyhough, C., & Alderson-Day, B. (2022). Voice-hearing across the continuum: a phenomenology of spiritual voices. Schizophrenia Bulletin: The Journal of Psychoses and Related Disorders, 48(5), 1066-1074. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbac054
• Mayer, C., Dodgson, G., Woods, A., & Alderson‐Day, B. (2022). “Figuring out how to be normal”: Exploring how young people and parents make sense of voice‐hearing in the family context. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 95(2), 600-614. https://doi.org/10.1111/papt.12381
• Dudley, R., Dodgson, G., Common, S., O'Grady, L., Watson, F., Gibbs, C., …Aynsworth, C. (2022). Managing Unusual Sensory Experiences in People with First-Episode Psychosis (MUSE FEP): a study protocol for a single-blind parallel-group randomised controlled feasibility trial. BMJ Open, 12(5), Article e061827. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-061827
• Moseley, P., Alderson-Day, B., Common, S., Dodgson, G., Lee, R., Mitrenga, K., …Fernyhough, C. (2022). Continuities and Discontinuities in the Cognitive Mechanisms Associated With Clinical and Nonclinical Auditory Verbal Hallucinations. Clinical Psychological Science, https://doi.org/10.1177/21677026211059802
• Smailes, D., Alderson-Day, B., Hazell, C., Wright, A., & Moseley, P. (2022). Measurement practices in hallucinations research. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 27(2-3), 183-198. https://doi.org/10.1080/13546805.2021.1999224
• Alderson-Day, B., Moffatt, J., Lima, C. F., Krishnan, S., Fernyhough, C., Scott, S. K., …Evans, S. (2022). Susceptibility to auditory hallucinations is associated with spontaneous but not directed modulation of top-down expectations for speech. Neuroscience of Consciousness, 2022(1), Article niac002. https://doi.org/10.1093/nc/niac002
• Wilkinson, S., Green, H., Hare, S., Houlders, J., Humpston, C., & Alderson-Day, B. (2022). Thinking about hallucinations: why philosophy matters. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 27(2-3), 219-235. https://doi.org/10.1080/13546805.2021.2007067
• Dodgson, G., Aynsworth, C., Mitrenga, K. J., Gibbs, C., Patton, V., Fernyhough, C., …Common, S. (2021). Managing unusual sensory experiences: A feasibility trial in an At Risk Mental States for psychosis group. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 94(3), 481 - 503. https://doi.org/10.1111/papt.12323
• Dodgson, G., Alderson-Day, B., Smailes, D., Ryles, F., Mayer, C., Glen-Davison, J., …Fernyhough, C. (2021). Tailoring cognitive behavioural therapy to subtypes of voice-hearing using a novel tabletised manual: a feasibility study. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 49(3), 287-301. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1352465820000661
• Alderson-Day, B., Woods, A., Moseley, P., Dodgson, G., Deamer, F., Common, S., & Fernyhough, C. (2021). Voice-Hearing and Personification: Characterizing Social Qualities of Auditory Verbal Hallucinations in Early Psychosis. Schizophrenia Bulletin: The Journal of Psychoses and Related Disorders, 47(1), 228-236. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa095
• Thompson, R., Hallas, L., Moseley, P., & Alderson-Day, B. (2021). Cognitive and phenomenological characteristics of hallucination-proneness across the lifespan. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 26(1), 18-34. https://doi.org/10.1080/13546805.2020.1850435
• Hadden, L. M., Alderson‐Day, B., Jackson, M., Fernyhough, C., & Bentall, R. P. (2020). The auditory‐verbal hallucinations of Welsh–English bilingual people. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 93(1), 122-133. https://doi.org/10.1111/papt.12234
• Foxwell, J., Alderson-Day, B., Fernyhough, C., & Woods, A. (2020). ‘I’ve learned I need to treat my characters like people’: Varieties of agency and interaction in Writers’ experiences of their Characters’ Voices. Consciousness and Cognition, 79, Article 102901. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2020.102901
• Collins, L. C., Semino, E., Demjén, Z., Hardie, A., Moseley, P., Woods, A., & Alderson-Day, B. (2020). A linguistic approach to the psychosis continuum: (dis)similarities and (dis)continuities in how clinical and non-clinical voice-hearers talk about their voices. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 25(6), 447-465. https://doi.org/10.1080/13546805.2020.1842727
• Kafadar, E., Mittal, V. A., Strauss, G. P., Chapman, H. C., Ellman, L. M., Bansal, S., …Powers, A. R. (2020). Modeling perception and behavior in individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis: Support for the predictive processing framework. Schizophrenia Research, 226, 167-175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2020.04.017
• Moffatt, J., Mitrenga, K. J., Alderson-Day, B., Moseley, P., & Fernyhough, C. (2020). Inner experience differs in rumination and distraction without a change in electromyographical correlates of inner speech. PLoS ONE, 15(9), Article e0238920. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0238920
• Alderson-Day, B., Moffatt, J., Bernini, M., Mitrenga, K., Yao, B., & Fernyhough, C. (2020). Processing Speech and Thoughts during Silent Reading: Direct Reference Effects for Speech by Fictional Characters in Voice-Selective Auditory Cortex and a Theory-of-Mind Network. The Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 32(9), 1637-1653. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_01571
• Mitrenga, K. J., Alderson-Day, B., May, L., Moffatt, J., Moseley, P., & Fernyhough, C. (2019). Reading characters in voices: Ratings of personality characteristics from voices predict proneness to auditory verbal hallucinations. PLoS ONE, 14(8), Article e0221127. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0221127
• Fernyhough, C., Watson, A., Bernini, M., Moseley, P., & Alderson-Day, B. (2019). Imaginary companions, inner speech and auditory verbal hallucinations: What are the relations?. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, Article 1665. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01665
• Alderson-Day, B., Smailes, D., Moffatt, J., Mitrenga, K., Moseley, P., & Fernyhough, C. (2019). Intentional inhibition but not source memory is related to hallucination-proneness and intrusive thoughts in a university sample. Cortex, 113, 267-278. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2018.12.020
• Luhrmann, T. M., Alderson-Day, B., Bell, V., Bless, J. J., Corlett, P., Hugdahl, K., …Waters, F. (2019). Beyond Trauma: A Multiple Pathways Approach to Auditory Hallucinations in Clinical and Nonclinical Populations. Schizophrenia Bulletin: The Journal of Psychoses and Related Disorders, 45(Supplement_1), S24-S31. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sby110
• Thomas, N., Bless, J. J., Alderson-Day, B., Bell, I. H., Cella, M., Craig, T., …Jardri, R. (2019). Potential Applications of Digital Technology in Assessment, Treatment, and Self-help for Hallucinations. Schizophrenia Bulletin: The Journal of Psychoses and Related Disorders, 45(Supplement_1), S32-S42. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sby103
• Moseley, P., Alderson-Day, B., Kumar, S., & Fernyhough, C. (2018). Musical hallucinations, musical imagery, and earworms: A new phenomenological survey. Consciousness and Cognition, 65, 83-94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2018.07.009
• Alderson-Day, B., Mitrenga, K., Wilkinson, S., McCarthy-Jones, S., & Fernyhough, C. (2018). The varieties of inner speech questionnaire – Revised (VISQ-R): Replicating and refining links between inner speech and psychopathology. Consciousness and Cognition, 65, 48-58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2018.07.001
• Alderson-Day, B., & Jones, N. (2017). Understanding AVATAR therapy: who, or what, is changing?. The Lancet Psychiatry, 5(1), 2-3. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2215-0366%2817%2930471-6
• Alderson-Day, B., Lima, C., Evans, S., Krishnan, S., Shanmugalingam, P., Fernyhough, C., & Scott, S. (2017). Distinct Processing of Ambiguous Speech in People with Non-Clinical Auditory Verbal Hallucinations. Brain, 140(9), 2475-2489. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awx206
• Garrison, J., Moseley, P., Alderson-Day, B., Smailes, D., Fernyhough, C., & Simons, J. (2017). Testing continuum models of psychosis: No reduction in source monitoring ability in healthy individuals prone to auditory hallucinations. Cortex, 91, 197-207. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2016.11.011
• Alderson-Day, B., Bernini, M., & Fernyhough, C. (2017). Uncharted features and dynamics of reading: Voices, characters, and crossing of experiences. Consciousness and Cognition, 49, 98-109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2017.01.003
• Hurlburt, R., Alderson-Day, B., Fernyhough, C., & Kühn, S. (2017). Can inner experience be apprehended in high fidelity? Examining brain activation and experience from multiple perspectives. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, Article 43. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00043
• Wilkinson, S., & Alderson-Day, B. (2016). Voices and Thoughts in Psychosis: An Introduction. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 7(3), 529-540. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13164-015-0288-6
• Alderson-Day, B., Diederen, K., Fernyhough, C., Ford, J. M., Horga, G., Margulies, D. S., …Jardri, R. (2016). Auditory Hallucinations and the Brain’s Resting-State Networks: Findings and Methodological Observations. Schizophrenia Bulletin: The Journal of Psychoses and Related Disorders, 42(5), 1110-1123. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbw078
• Hurlburt, R. T., Alderson-Day, B., Kühn, S., & Fernyhough, C. (2016). Exploring the Ecological Validity of Thinking on Demand: Neural Correlates of Elicited vs. Spontaneously Occurring Inner Speech. PLoS ONE, 11(2), Article e0147932. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0147932
• Moseley, P., Alderson-Day, B., Ellison, A., Jardri, R., & Fernyhough, C. (2016). Non-invasive Brain Stimulation and Auditory Verbal Hallucinations: New Techniques and Future Directions. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 9, Article 515. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2015.00515
• Alderson-Day, B., & Fernyhough, C. (2016). Auditory verbal hallucinations: Social, but how?. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 23(7-8), 163-194
• Alderson-Day, B., Weis, S., McCarthy-Jones, S., Moseley, P., Smailes, D., & Fernyhough, C. (2016). The brain’s conversation with itself: neural substrates of dialogic inner speech. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 11(1), 110-120. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsv094
• Smailes, D., Alderson-Day, B., Fernyhough, C., McCarthy-Jones, S., & Dodgson, G. (2015). Tailoring cognitive behavioural therapy to subtypes of voice-hearing. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, Article 1933. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01933
• Hurlburt, R., Alderson-Day, B., Fernyhough, C., & Kühn, S. (2015). What goes on in the resting state? A qualitative glimpse into resting-state experience in the scanner. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, Article 1535. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01535
• Firth, L., Alderson-Day, B., Woods, N., & Fernyhough, C. (2015). Imaginary companions in childhood: Relations to imagination skills and autobiographical memory in adults. Creativity Research Journal, 27(4), 308-313. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2015.1087240
• Alderson-Day, B., & Fernyhough, C. (2015). Inner speech: Development, cognitive functions, phenomenology, and neurobiology. Psychological Bulletin, 141(5), 931-965. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000021
• Alderson-Day, B., McCarthy-Jones, S., & Fernyhough, C. (2015). Hearing voices in the resting brain: A review of intrinsic functional connectivity research on auditory verbal hallucinations. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 55, 78-87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2015.04.016
• Alderson-Day, B., & Fernyhough, C. (2015). Relations among questionnaire and experience sampling measures of inner speech: a smartphone app study. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, Article 517. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00517
• Woods, A., Jones, N., Alderson-Day, B., Callard, F., & Fernyhough, C. (2015). Experiences of hearing voices: analysis of a novel phenomenological survey. The Lancet Psychiatry, 2(4), 323-331. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2215-0366%2815%2900006-1
• Kühn, S., Fernyhough, C., Alderson-Day, B., & Hurlburt, R. (2014). Inner experience in the scanner: Can high fidelity apprehensions of inner experience be integrated with fMRI?. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01393
• Alderson-Day, B. (2014). Verbal Problem-Solving Difficulties in Autism Spectrum Disorders and Atypical Language Development. Autism Research, 7(6), 720-730. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.1424
• Johns, L., Kompus, K., Connell, M., Humpston, C., Lincoln, T., Longden, E., …Larøi, F. (2014). Auditory verbal hallucinations in persons with and without a need for care. Schizophrenia Bulletin: The Journal of Psychoses and Related Disorders, 40(Suppl 4), S255-S264. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbu005
• Woods, A., Jones, N., Bernini, M., Callard, F., Alderson-Day, B., Badcock, J., …Fernyhough, C. (2014). Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Phenomenology of Auditory Verbal Hallucinations. Schizophrenia Bulletin: The Journal of Psychoses and Related Disorders, 40(Suppl 4), S246-S254. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbu003
• Alderson-Day, B., McCarthy-Jones, S., Bedford, S., Collins, H., Dunne, H., Rooke, C., & Fernyhough, C. (2014). Shot through with voices: Dissociation mediates the relationship between varieties of inner speech and auditory hallucination proneness. Consciousness and Cognition, 27, 288-296. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2014.05.010
• Alderson-Day, B., & Fernyhough, C. (2014). More than one voice: Investigating the phenomenological properties of inner speech requires a variety of methods. Consciousness and Cognition, 24, 113-114. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2013.12.012
• McGonigle-Chalmers, M., Alderson-Day, B., Fleming, J., & Monsen, K. (2013). Profound Expressive Language Impairment in Low Functioning Children with Autism: An Investigation of Syntactic Awareness Using a Computerised Learning Task. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 43(9), 2062-2081. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-012-1753-z
• Wright, B., Alderson-Day, B., Prendergast, G., Kennedy, J., Bennett, S., Docherty, M., …Green, G. (2013). Neural correlation of successful cognitive behaviour therapy for spider phobia: A magnetoencephalography study. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 214(3), 444-451. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pscychresns.2013.09.011
• Wright, B., Alderson-Day, B., Prendergast, G., Bennett, S., Jordan, J., Whitton, C., …Green, G. (2012). Gamma activation in young people with autism spectrum disorders and typically-developing controls when viewing emotions on faces. PLoS ONE, 7(7), https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0041326
• Wright, B., Pearce, H., Allgar, V., Miles, J., Whitton, C., Leon, I., …Alderson-Day, B. (2012). A comparison of urinary mercury between children with autism spectrum disorders and control children. PLoS ONE, 7(2), https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0029547
• Pillay, M., Alderson-Day, B., Wright, B., Williams, C., & Urwin, B. (2011). Autism Spectrum Conditions – Enhancing Nurture and Development (ASCEND): An evaluation of intervention support groups for parents. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 16(1), 5-20. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359104509340945
• Alderson-Day, B. (2011). Verbal problem-solving in autism spectrum disorders: A problem of plan construction?. Autism Research, 4(6), 401-411. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.222
• Wright, B., Sims, D., Smart, S., Alwazeer, A., Alderson-Day, B., Allgar, V., …Miles, J. (2011). Melatonin versus placebo in children with autism spectrum conditions and severe sleep problems not amenable to behaviour management strategies: A Randomised Controlled Crossover Trial. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 41(2), 175-184. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-010-1036-5
• Alderson-Day, B., & McGonigle-Chalmers, M. (2011). Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Category use in problem-solving in children with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 41(5), 555-565. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-010-1077-9
• McGonigle-Chalmers, M., & Alderson-Day, B. (2010). Free classification as a window on executive functioning in autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 40(7), 844-857. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-010-0947-5