Dr Richard Cole is a part-time PhD student in the ReSpect Lab (joined 2024), supervised by Professor Francesca Happé and Dr David Okai. His research focuses on the risk factors, lived experiences and neuropsychiatric sequelae of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in autistic people - an understudied population in TBI research.

Richard uses a mixed methods approach, combining health record analysis with phenomenological interviews to understand how TBI may interact with autistic traits, identity and vulnerability to psychiatric outcomes. He is also exploring injury mechanisms, and the precipitation of functional neurological or somatic symptoms in autistic individuals suffering concussion.

Before starting his PhD, Richard studied medicine and neuroscience at Cardiff University (2009–2015), completed Foundation Training in Oxford, and earned a master’s in Clinical Neuropsychiatry at the IoPPN while working in brain injury rehabilitation in Hackney (2017–2019). He went on to complete Core Psychiatry training in Camden & Islington and at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (2019–2023).

Clinically, Richard works in brain injury rehabilitation and serves on the committee of the British Neuropsychiatry Association since 2022.

Research interests

• Traumatic Brain Injury
• Autism
• Functional Neurological Disorder
• Computational Psychiatry
• Interoception