Dr Gaby Pfeifer

Overview

Dr Pfeifer’s work focuses on interoception and ageing, exploring how the mind-body connection changes across the lifespan and varies between different personality types. As a Chartered Psychologist and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, she brings a background in cognitive neuroscience and biological psychology to her research. 

Dr Pfeifer’s research examines how changes in the mind-body connection influence emotional experience, cognition, and both mental and physical health. To investigate these processes, she draws on a range of subjective, behavioural, and physiological techniques. Her work spans clinical and non-clinical populations across the lifespan, with an emphasis on emotional processing and the ways in which individuals adapt to major health-related and life-changing circumstances.  

Dr Pfeifer is a member of the Centre for Innovation in Mental Health. She collaborates with researchers across a range of active projects investigating interoception, emotion, and psychophysiological processes across the lifespan. Beyond her research, she speaks regularly at public engagement events on career planning. She also advises students on work-based learning and placement opportunities. 

Interoception across the lifespan 

Investigating how interoceptive sensitivity and psychophysiological processes change with age and what this means for health and wellbeing. 

Coping with life-changing health events in later life 

Investigating how older adults adjust to major health challenges by examining the roles of interoceptive sensitivity, coping styles, social support, and identity-related changes contribute to their emotional and psychological adaptation. 

Interoception, personality, and emotional processing  

Exploring the relationship between interoceptive sensitivity, personality traits such as introversion and neuroticism, and emotional learning and memory.