Dr. Monika Kornacka, a psychologist researching emotional regulation and mood disorders, at SWPS University’s Emotion Cognition Lab has been awarded a grant worth EUR 285K from the National Center for Research and Development (NCBiR) in the 13th edition of the LIDER funding scheme competition for the development of a Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Dynamic Network App.
CBT Dynamic Network App will support therapists
The goal of the "CBT Dynamic Network App — a solution based on dynamic symptom networks aimed to support the diagnosis and monitoring of cognitive-behavioral therapy" project is to develop a tool, which will allow therapists to work with large data sets collected by their patients via mobile devices such as smartphones and smartwatches.
The latest research suggests that statistical analysis of large data sets helps identify dynamic relationships between symptoms that are impossible to detect during a clinical interview or even imperceptible to the patients. Therefore, such analysis perfectly complements the classical therapeutic approach, based on patients' clinical history and self-observation. However, implementing large data analysis can be challenging. Firstly, it would require additional work from therapists (such as collecting data from the patient, preparing it for analysis, calculating dynamic symptom networks using a statistical package, and finally interpreting the results). Secondly, therapists would also need to have programming and statistical skills.
The CBT Dynamic Network App developed by Dr. Kornacka will fulfill these requirements. It will help create dynamic symptom networks in a fully automated and easy-to-interpret manner, not requiring any programming or performing calculations by therapists. It will include three components: an app for therapists, an app for patients, and a data visualization model, which will enable therapists to interpret the symptom network swiftly and correctly. As a result, they will be able to easily determine the timeframe and the types of questions the app will pose to the patients. Moreover, the app will create additional visualizations of therapy-relevant information.
Aboout the researcher
Monika Kornacka
Ph.D. / Assistant Professor
Is a psychologist. Her research interests focus on emotional regulation in mood disorders, transdiagnostic processes (especially repetitive negative thoughts and divagation of thought), and cognitive-behavioral therapy. She is also interested in executive function training and the application of new technologies in clinical psychology and in research on psychopathology. She is Head of the Emotion Cognition Lab (ECL) where she uses the latest methods and technical solutions, such as mobile applications, eyetracking, and virtual and extended reality, to measure psychological processes. In her research projects, funded by the National Science Centre and the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA), she examines what factors may lead to an increased risk of mental disorders, such as depression and anxiety, due to repetitive negative thoughts or maladaptive daydreaming, and how to address these processes to increase the effectiveness of therapies.
About the LEADER (LIDER) funding scheme
LEADER (LIDER) is one of the funding schemes provided by the National Centre for Research and Development intended to support the development of researchers, particularly young scientists. To obtain grants from this granting scheme, researchers may submit proposals with a clear implementation potential from any field of science.
The program is addressed to doctoral students and academic teachers who do not hold doctoral degrees or young researchers who have held doctoral degrees for less than seven years, and who have:
- demonstrated above-average scientific achievement (e.g., have been published in renowned scientific journals or hold patents)
- are Polish citizens or hold Polish residency cards or are citizens of any other EU country who have resided in Poland for longer than three months
This year, over 300 applications were submitted for the LIDER competition, of which 49 projects received funding for a total of over PLN 71M (approx. EUR 15M). The maximum funding for a project was PLN 1.5M (over EUR 319.5K).
Learn more about the winners of the 2022 LIDER competition (in Polish)