Laura McWhirter graduated MBChB from the University of Edinburgh in 2008, having taken an unusual route to medicine after a degree in music from the University of York in 2001.  Dr McWhirter completed specialist training in General Adult and Liaison Psychiatry in South East Scotland in June 2018. She has been active in neuropsychiatry research since 2013 as part of the Edinburgh Functional Disorders Research Group. Her research program is in cognition and functional neurological disorders.