Department of Psychology

Studies

• PhD student. Department of Psychology. Faculty of Social Sciences. University of Crete (February 2018-present)
• Master (MSc) in the Brain and Mind Sciences. Faculty of Medicine. University of Crete (2014-2016)
• Bachelor (BA) in Psychology. Department of Psychology. Faculty of Social Sciences. University of Crete (2008-2013)

Doctoral Thesis Title

The association of schizotypal personality traits with cognitive and emotional functions in high risk groups for schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

Brief Description

The aim of this research is to investigate the association between the four factor model of schizotypy (cognitive-perceptual, paranoid, negative and disorganized) in healthy community participants and the endophenotypes of schizophrenia spectrum. This research has a longitudinal and a cross-sectional component. For the longitudinal component, we perform, for the first time, a follow-up assessment in healthy community participants, who participated in our previous research, in order to investigate the stability of the effects of schizotypal traits on the cognitive impairments and impairments of sensorimotor gating over time. For the cross-sectional component, we will assess, for the first time, healthy community participants with high schizotypal personality traits, in order to a) investigate the effect of schizotypal personality traits on facial emotion recognition and functional laterality, b) compare the impairments between cold and hot cognitive functions, and c) investigate more fully the hypothesis that cognitive-perceptual schizotypal factor identifies the concept of “healthy” schizotypy.

Research Funding

PhD student scholarship. Hellenic Foundation for Research & Innovation (H.F.R.I)

Supervisors

• Giakoumaki Stella (Supervisor)/ Associate Professor in Clinical Neuropsychology, Psychology Department, University of Crete
• Tsaousis Ioannis (Co-Supervisor)/ Professor in Psychometrics, Psychology Department, University of Crete
• Tsakanikos Ilias (Co-SUpervisor)/ Reader in Psychology, Psychology Department, University of Roehampton

Publications

• Tsaousis I., Zouraraki C., Karamaouna P., Karagiannopoulou L., & Giakoumaki S.G. (2015). The validity of the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ) in a Greek sample: Tests of measurement invariance and latent mean differences. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 62: 51-62. DOI: 10.1016/j.comppsych.2015.06.003
• Giakoumaki, S. G., Karagiannopoulou, L., Rózsa, S., Zouraraki, C., Karamaouna, P., & Cloninger, C. R. (2016). Psychometric properties of the Greek TCI-R and its clinical correlates: schizotypy and the self-regulation of affective and cognitive functioning. PeerJ, 4: e1830. DOI: 10.7717/peerj.1830
• Zouraraki, C., Karamaouna, P., Karagiannopoulou, L., & Giakoumaki, S.G. (2017). Schizotypy-independent and Schizotypy-Modulated Cognitive Impairments in Unaffected First-Degree Relatives of Schizophrenia-spectrum Patients. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 1-16. DOI:10.1093/arclin/acx029
• Zouraraki, C., Karagiannopoulou, L., Karamaouna, P., Pallis, E.G., Giakoumaki, S.G. (2019). Schizotypal traits, neurocognition, and paternal age in unaffected first degree relatives of patients with familial or sporadic schizophrenia. Psychiatry Research, 273: 422-429.

Poster Presentations

• Zouraraki, C., Karagiannopoulou, L., Karamaouna, P., & Giakoumaki, S. G. Cognitive functions and schizotypal traits in unaffected relatives of schizophrenia patients: Non-linear effects of familial loading. 1st Panhellenic Conference on Neuropsychology, April 2018, Athens, Greece. Poster Award
• Giakoumaki, S. G., Karamaouna, P., Karagiannopoulou, L., & Zouraraki, C. The Neurocognitive Profile of Disorganized Schizotypy: Preliminary Findings. FENS Regional Meeting 2019, 10-13 July 2019, Belgrade, Serbia.
• Karamaouna, P., Karagiannopoulou, L., Zouraraki, C., Giakoumaki, S. G. On the association of schizotypal traits with Prepulse Inhibition. 28th Meeting of the Hellenic Society for Neuroscience, 4-6 October 2019, Heraklion, Crete, Greece.