Miss Brittany Child
Higher Degree by Research Candidate
School of Psychology
College of Education, Behavioural and Social Sciences
I am a final year PhD student in the School of Psychology's Cognitive and Neural Sciences Lab. My PhD research investigates the relationship between cognitive impairment and motor function in Parkinson's disease. My research seeks to better characterise the association between patients' motor symptom profile and their likelihood of experiencing cognitive impairment, with the goal of improving prognostic accuracy. My research also considers the motor-cognitive relationship in healthy ageing, and how this compares with the pattern of motor and cognitive decline observed in Parkinson's. I am especially interested in impairments in learning and decision-making, and linking these impairments to the dopaminergic changes observed in both healthy ageing and neurodegenerative disease. I am supervised by Dr Irina Baetu, Associate Professor Lyndsey Collins-Praino, and Dr Nathan Beu.I have extensive experience as a course tutor and marker, and received the School of Psychology's Excellence in Tutoring award in 2022.
My current research focuses on decision-making impairments in Parkinson's disease, with the aim of mapping these abnormalities to the basal ganglia model of action selection. I am particularly interested in the relationship between cognitive and motor dysfunction; to this end, my research explores whether different patterns of motor dysfunction co-occur with and predict specific patterns of cognitive decline. This research may improve prognostic accuracy and inform assessment tools and protocols used in the diagnosis and treatment of disorders known to have both cognitive and motor components (e.g., Parkinson’s disease, stroke, traumatic brain injury, schizophrenia).
Poster presented at the 2019 Annual Florey Postgraduate Research Conference (September 2019).
| Date | Position | Institution name |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 - 2022 | Tutor | University of Adelaide |
| 2018 - 2023 | Marker | University of Adelaide |
| Date | Type | Title | Institution Name | Country | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Award | School of Psychology Prize, Florey Postgraduate Research Conference | University of Adelaide | Australia | $200 |
| 2019 | Scholarship | WASAA Group Travel Scholarship | Embassy of France, Australia | France | $3125 |
| 2018 | Scholarship | Complex Human Data School Travel Scholarship | University of Melbourne | Australia | $500 |
| 2017 | Award | APS Prize in Psychology | Australian Psychological Society | Australia | Nil |
| 2017 | Scholarship | Vacation Research Scholarship | University of South Australia | Australia | $2400 |
| 2017 | Scholarship | The University of Adelaide Honours Scholarship | University of Adelaide | Australia | $5000 |
| 2016 | Award | Roby Fletcher Munn Prize for Psychology III | University of Adelaide | Australia | $200 |
| 2016 | Award | The CB Martin Prize for a Philosophy Major | University of Adelaide | Australia | $500 |
| 2015 | Award | Norman Munn Prize for Psychology II | University of Adelaide | Australia | $200 |
| 2015 | Scholarship | Summer Research Scholarship | University of Adelaide | Australia | $1200 |
| Date | Institution name | Country | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 - 2017 | University of Adelaide, Adelaide | Australia | Bachelor of Psychology (1A Honours) |
| Date | Title | Institution | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 - 2019 | New Trends in Information Technologies | IMT Atlantique | France |
| 2018 - 2018 | Complex Human Data Summer School | University of Melbourne | Australia |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Foreman, L., Child, B., Saywell, I., Collins-Praino, L., & Baetu, I. (2025). Cognitive reserve moderates the effect of COVID-19 on cognition: A systematic review and meta-analysis of individual participant data. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 171, 31 pages. Scopus1 WoS2 Europe PMC2 |
| 2025 | Child, B., Beu, N., Saywell, I., da Silva, R., Collins-Praino, L., & Baetu, I. (2025). Cognitive function in different motor subtypes of Parkinson’s disease: A systematic review and multilevel meta-analysis. Cognitive Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience, 49 pages. |
| 2024 | Saywell, I., Foreman, L., Child, B., Phillips-Hughes, A. L., Collins-Praino, L., & Baetu, I. (2024). Influence of cognitive reserve on cognitive and motor function in α-synucleinopathies: A systematic review and multilevel meta-analysis. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 161, 28 pages. Scopus7 WoS7 Europe PMC4 |
| 2024 | Child, B., Saywell, I., da Silva, R., Collins-Praino, L., & Baetu, I. (2024). Cognitive function in different motor subtypes of Parkinson's disease: A systematic review protocol.. Health Sci Rep, 7(5), e2092. Scopus4 WoS4 Europe PMC4 |
| 2023 | Saywell, I., Child, B., Foreman, L., Collins‐Praino, L., & Baetu, I. (2023). Influence of cognitive reserve on cognitive and motor function in α‐synucleinopathies: A systematic review protocol. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1522(1), 15-23. Scopus3 WoS3 Europe PMC2 |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2019 | Child, B. D., Baetu, I., Collins-Praino, L., & Burns, N. (2019). Reinforcement learning in Parkinson’s disease: Do motor symptoms predict performance?. Poster session presented at the meeting of 28th Annual Meeting of the International Behavioral Neuroscience Society. Cairns, Australia. |
| 2019 | Child, B. D., Baetu, I., Collins-Praino, L., Salamon, J., & Burns, N. (2019). Reinforcement learning in Parkinson's disease: Do motor symptoms predict performance?. Poster session presented at the meeting of Florey Postgraduate Research Conference. Adelaide, Australia. |
| 2018 | Child, B. D., Baetu, I., & Burns, N. (2018). Watch and learn: Identifying optimal conditions for learning. Poster session presented at the meeting of The University of Adelaide Undergraduate Research Conference. Adelaide, Australia. |
| 2018 | Child, B. D., Baetu, I., & Burns, N. (2018). Watch and learn: The effects of time delays and interfering events on our ability to learn. Poster session presented at the meeting of Florey Postgraduate Research Conference. Adelaide, Australia. |
| 2018 | Child, B. D., Baetu, I., & Burns, N. (2018). Individual differences in working memory capacity predict performance on an associative learning task. Poster session presented at the meeting of Australian Psychological Society Congress. Sydney, Australia. |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Saywell, I., Sghirripa, S., Walls, A., Dwyer, A., Child, B., Salamon, J., . . . Baetu, I. (2025). Lifetime experiences as proxies of cognitive reserve predict cognition and motor function beyond multimodal MRI brain measures in healthy adults. DOI |
Senior Tutor
Research Methods and Statistics (Honours; 2020-2022)
Course Tutor
Psychology IB (Level I; 2021)
Learning and Behaviour (Level III; 2019)
Course Marker
Research Methods and Statistics (Honours; 2021-2023)
Foundations of Health and Lifespan Development (Level II; 2021)
Doing Research in Psychology (Level II; 2020)
Learning and Behaviour (Level III; 2019, 2021)
Psychology Skills and Applications (Level I; 2018-2020)
Other Teaching Experience
In 2022, I was the R Support Officer for the School of Psychology. In this role, I worked independently to provide support in using R to all second- and third-year undergraduate psychology students. Responsibilities included producing online resources (e.g., how to install and load packages, how to run t-tests), facilitating weekly drop-in sessions via zoom, and answering online discussion board questions.
In late 2021, I was employed by the School of Psychology to write and record a series of online modules for first-year psychology students on essay writing and APA formatting and referencing. As part of this role, I also used Canvas Learning Management Software to create the course page for these modules.
| Date | Role | Committee | Institution | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 - ongoing | Representative | School of Psychology Research Committee | University of Adelaide | Australia |
| 2018 - ongoing | President | Psychology Students' Association | University of Adelaide | Australia |
| 2016 - 2018 | Representative | Psychology Students' Association | University of Adelaide | Australia |
| Date | Role | Membership | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 - ongoing | Member | Australasian Neuroscience Society | Australia |
| 2018 - ongoing | Member | Biological Psychiatry Australia | Australia |
| 2018 - ongoing | Member | Health Sciences Postgraduate Association (HeSPA) | Australia |
| 2017 - 2017 | Member | EEG Club | Australia |
| 2017 - ongoing | Member | Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society (ACNS) | Australia |
| 2014 - ongoing | Member | Australian Psychological Society | Australia |
Connect With Me
External Profiles
