People
ECOLOGICAL BRAIN is a cross-disciplinary initiative that investigates brain and behaviour in the real world.
Supervisors come from five different Faculties at UCL: The Faculty of Brain Sciences, The Faculty of Engineering, The Institute of Education, The Faculty of Historical and Social Sciences, the Bartlett School of Architecture.
Roles
Supervisors
Prof Gabriella Vigliocco
Ecological Brain Programme Director, Professor of Psychology of Language, Department of Experimental Psychology
Gabriella is Professor of the Psychology of Language at UCL. She jointly leads the Institute of Multimodal Communication, which is devoted to the understanding of the behavioural and brain mechanisms that allow humans to communicate with one another in the real world. Within the Institute, Gabriella directs the Language and Cognition Laboratory (http://www.language-cognition-lab.org/). She uses methods from psychology, neuroscience and computational modelling and seeks converging evidence from different languages and populations: adults, children, deaf individuals using sign language, and people with aphasia.Throughout the years, she contributed and led a shift in the fields of Psychology, Neuroscience and Linguistics from studying language as a symbolic capacity, evolved, learnt and use separately from the rest of human cognition, to one in which language is grounded in basic sensorimotor functions and that needs to be studied in its ecological niche.
Prof Hugo Spiers
Ecological Brain Programme Deputy Director, Reader in Neuroscience, Department of Experimental Psychology
Prof Hugo Spiers is a Reader in Neuroscience in the Department of Experimental Psychology. He is the group leader of the Spatial Cognition group in the UCL Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience and Director of Science at The Centric Lab Ltd. Prof Spiers has combined numerous methods to explore spatial cognition from single cells to whole brain networks. His research focuses on how the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex contribute to recall of the past, navigation of present and imagination of the future.
Cell and Developmental Biology, Division of Biosciences.
Prof. Caswell Barry joined UCL’s Cell and Developmental Biology department in 2013, previously being based at the Institute of Neurology with Prof. Neil Burgess. His goal is to build a computational understanding of the neural basis of memory. In other words, explaining how a network of neurons in able to store, update, and retrieve information about the world and events that happen within it. To this end he studies spatial memory and its representation in the hippocampal formation. His lab uses tools such as computational modelling and machine learning in conjunction with a variety of experimental techniques to understand how the processes of memory formation and retrieval are triggered.
Prof Tim Behrens
Professor Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging.
Prof Behrens studies how our brains learn and represent knowledge about the world in service of flexible behaviour. His work aims to explain complex human behaviour but is grounded in comparisons with animal models and formal mathematical theory. It has therefore found relevance across scales from cells to brain regions and across mammalian species. He has also developed widely used approaches for measuring brain connections non-invasively. A major recent theme has been neural computations in the frontal-hippocampal circuitry. Here, he has shown that cellular computations renowned for their roles in spatial processing, such as grid cells and replay can also represent and manipulate non-spatial knowledge. Using these results, he has built models that help to reconcile our accounts of spatial and non-spatial processing in hippocampus.
DR Dan Bendor
Associate Professor in the Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience and Department of Experimental Psychology.
Daniel Bendor is an Associate Professor in the Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience and Department of Experimental Psychology. His current research focuses on how information is encoded by our brain, specifically within the context of auditory perception, memory consolidation, and sleep, using a combination of large-scale electrophysiological, molecular-genetic and computational tools. More details about his research can be found here: https://bendorlab.wordpress.com
Prof Nadia Berthouze
Professor in Affective Computing and Interaction, UCL Interaction Centre
Nadia Bianchi-Berthouze is a Full Professor in Affective Computing and Interaction at the UCL Interaction Centre (UCLIC). Her research focuses on designing technology that can sense the affective state of its users and use that information to tailor the interaction process. She has pioneered the field of Affective Computing and for more than a decade she has investigated body movement and more recently touch behaviour as means to recognize and measure the quality of the user experience in ecological settings. She also studies how full-body technology and body sensory feedback can be used to modulate people’s perception of their own body and of their own physical capabilities to improve self-efficacy and self-esteem. She has published more than 200 papers in Affective Computing, HCI, and Pattern Recognition. She was awarded the 2003 Technical Prize from the Japanese Society of Kansei Engineering and she has given a TEDxStMartin talk (2012).
Prof Neil Burgess
Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience, Director of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Institute of Neurology
Neil Burgess is Director of the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience. Neil studied Maths and Physics at UCL and Theoretical Physics at Manchester, where he began modelling working memory with Graham Hitch. He returned to UCL to work with John O’Keefe, creating models and experiments concerning how neurons represent space and support memory. With Tom Hartley and Colin Lever he predicted and discovered neurons representing environmental boundaries. With Sue Becker he proposed the first model explaining how neurons in the hippocampal system support coherent spatial imagery. Since the mid 1990’s Neil has pioneered the use of virtual reality to understand how the brain supports spatial and episodic memory in everyday situations, including naturalistic environments and the presence of multi-modal and emotionally salient contents. He is a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow, Fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal Society.
Dr Velia Cardin
Associate Professor, Deafness, Cognition & Language Research Centre & Department of Experimental Psychology, UCL
I am an Associate Professor at the Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre and the Department of Experimental Psychology, UCL. Using neuroimaging, pharmacological and behavioural techniques, I study neural plasticity to understand the capabilities and constraints of the human brain. My research focuses on deafness, because of the possibility to study neural plasticity in cognitive and sensory systems, and the strong potential for societal impact. I graduated from the Wellcome Trust 4-year PhD Programme in Neuroscience at UCL, and previously worked at the University of East Anglia, Linköping University and Royal Holloway University of London. I am actively involved in communicating research to the general public and to 3rd sector and government organisations. These include participating in the SeeHear program for the BBC, the ‘Music and the deaf brain project’ for Guerilla Science’s Sencity Multisensory event, and the Prevention and Early Intervention Mission Group of the UK Council on Deafness.
Prof Maria Chait
Professor of Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL Ear Institute
Maria Chait is a Professor of auditory Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London. Work in her laboratory, at the interface between cognitive and ‘systems’ neuroscience, is using behavioural methods, eye tracking and functional brain imaging (MEG, EEG and fMRI) to understand the role of the auditory system as the brain’s early warning system and to determine how listeners use sounds to learn about, and efficiently interact with their surroundings. Her research can be found at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ear/research/chaitlab/
DR Robert Cooper
Lecturer, Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, UCL
Dr. Rob Cooper is an EPSRC Early Career Fellow and Lecturer in the Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, where he runs the DOT-HUB research group. His research interests focus on the development of new forms of neuroimaging technology for application outside of the traditional scanner environment. While Dr. Cooper works with a range of modalities, his group specialise in the use of light to image human brain function using a technique known as diffuse optical tomography (DOT). His work has driven the emergence of wearable DOT as a viable tool for neuroscience applications, and he and his team are currently applying this new generation of neuroimaging technology to variously study infant cognitive development, brain injury, motor disorders and the healthy adult brain, all in environments and circumstances that have previously been inaccessible to neuroimaging.
Prof Fred Dick
Professor of Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience, Director of Birbeck-UCL Centre for Neuroimaging
My work is in large part directed at understanding how the acquisition of complex skills (like spoken language) build on domain-general skills and neural resources. A prevalent assumption is that language learning and use relies on highly specific neural processes. We have shown that multiple aspects of language development, learning, and breakdown are intimately linked with variations in more species-general abilities, such as auditory scene analysis of natural soundscapes and oromotor sequencing abilities. Many of the neural resources underlying processing of complex sensorimotor tasks are shared with analogous tasks performed with language. We have also shown that expertise in different non-linguistic auditory skills strongly shapes neuronal activation preferences in brain regions often cited as speech- and language-specific. To understand how higher-level, human-specific skills such as language emerge from a brain organized around sensorimotor lines, we have also developed novel neuroimaging methods that allow for direct comparisons with functional and myeloarchitectonic organisation in non-human primates.
Prof Julie Dockrell
Professor of Psychology and Special Needs, Institute of Education.
Professor of Psychology and Special Needs at UCL, IOE and qualified as both a clinical and educational psychologist. Her research interests are in patterns of language development and the ways in which oral language skills impact on children's learning, interaction and attainments. A central theme in this research has been the application of evidence based research to support children's learning and the ways in which environmental factors impact on learning and attainment. She has published widely in the areas of developmental difficulties and their impacts on learning and development. She was editor of the BJEP, associate editor for JSLHR, IJLCD and Learning and Instruction and Editor in Chief of Research in Developmental Disabilities. She was co-director of the Better Communication Research Programme and co PI on the current COST action - European Literacy network.
Dr Steve Fleming
Sir Henry Dale Fellow, Department of Experimental Psychology and Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, UCL.
Steve Fleming is a Wellcome Trust/Royal Society Sir Henry Dale Fellow in the Department of Experimental Psychology and Principal Investigator at the Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging where he leads the Metacognition Group. His research programme centres on understanding the remarkable human capacity for self-awareness and metacognition – the ability to reflect on mental states, and share awareness of our minds with others. To address these questions he combines psychophysical methods and brain imaging with large-scale online data collection to reveal the workings of metacognition, and how it differs between individuals. His research group has a strong focus on theoretical modelling, aiming to devise computational models of self-awareness and metacognition that inform and guide empirical work.
Prof Eirini Flouri
Member of the Executive Board, Professor of Developmental Psychology, Institute of Education
Eirini is professor of developmental psychology at UCL Institute of Education. She has led many externally funded research projects on the role of environmental factors in child cognition and behaviour. At the moment she leads two ESRC grants on this topic and collaborates on another 2 (from the ESRC and the British Academy). She works with geographers, statisticians and engineers toward an understanding of the role of the physical environment (e.g., green space, ambient air pollution) for the developing brain. Much of her current research explores the biological mechanisms (e.g., inflammation) through which the physical and the social environment can affect cognition and behaviour. She also supervises externally-funded PhD studentships on this. Most of her related past work focussed on estimating neighbourhood and school effects on child development. That involved linking neighbourhood and school level data to individual level data from the UK birth cohort studies.
Prof Karl Friston
Professor of Neuroscience, Wellcome Principal Research Fellow, and Honorary Consultant in Neuropsychiatry, Institute of Neurology
Karl Friston is a theoretical neuroscientist and authority on brain imaging. He invented statistical parametric mapping (SPM), voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and dynamic causal modelling (DCM). Friston currently works on models of functional integration in the human brain and the principles that underlie neuronal interactions. His main contribution to theoretical neurobiology is a free-energy principle for action and perception (active inference). Friston received the first Young Investigators Award in Human Brain Mapping (1996) and was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (1999). In 2000 he was President of the international Organization of Human Brain Mapping. In 2003 he was awarded the Minerva Golden Brain Award and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2006. In 2008 he received a Medal, College de France and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of York in 2011. He became of Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology in 2012, received the Weldon Memorial prize and Medal in 2013 for contributions to mathematical biology and was elected as a member of EMBO (excellence in the life sciences) in 2014 and the Academia Europaea in (2015). He was the 2016 recipient of the Charles Branch Award for unparalleled breakthroughs in Brain Research and the Glass Brain Award, a lifetime achievement award in the field of human brain mapping. He holds Honorary Doctorates from the University of Zurich and Radboud University.
Dr Sam Gilbert
Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience
I am a senior research fellow at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience. My research focuses on the cognitive neuroscience of executive functions, memory, and social cognition, using behavioural, functional neuroimaging, and computational modelling approaches. A key theme of recent research is "intention offloading": How do we decide whether to use our own memory or set external reminders to remember delayed intentions? Answering this question can help us to understand how memory processes operate in the real world, and how they are augmented with external resources. As our cognitive processes become increasingly intertwined with external tools, resources, and technologies, studying these processes will play an important role in understanding adaptive human behaviour in everyday life.
Prof Lewis Griffin
Professor of Computational Vision, Department of Computer Science
I use mathematical, computational and psychophysical methods to understand vision, and for applied image analysis (esp. security compass.cs.ucl.ac.uk/). I have wide interests in vision but especially image structure, colour vision, anomaly detection, object recognition and face perception. In recent years I have made increasing use of machine learning methods, including deep learning, but prefer the insight that derives from more explicit models. Image Structure: understanding visual processing as a form of differential calculus computed with non-infinitesimal operators; using those operators to probe the local symmetry type of image locations; organizing the results within an 'atlas'-like geometry of the visual field. Colour Vision: linking from materials (reflectance), through optics, sensation, perception (colours) to cognition (naming). What geometries can be operationalized for colour space, and what determines them? Why are the basic colour categories so universal?
Dr Antonia Hamilton
Reader in Social Neuroscience, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience
Dr Antonia Hamilton studies the brain and cognitive mechanisms of human nonverbal social interactions such as imitation and gaze. Her current work explores the interactions of two or more people using new technologies including virtual reality, motion capture, mobile eye tracking and fNIRS as well as more traditional approaches.
Dr Catherine Holloway
Senior Lecturer, Department of Computer Science
Catherine Holloway's research revolves around 'disability innovations'. The starting point for this is understanding the issues faced by disabled people. This can include navigating new cities, reading a book, or surfing the web. Disability is an exciting area, as disabled people are always looking to do things differently and get around barriers, and this makes for interesting problems. Current research which is linked to the ecological brain includes: understanding how people with dementia navigate every day indoor scenarios; measuring the cognitive load of using different wheelchairs in cities; developing new navigation aids for the blind which take account of how they perceive the world; investigating brain plasticity when using a '6th finger' to design better rehabilitation programmes; understanding how humans and robots interact.
Prof Andrew Hudson-Smith
Member of the Executive Board, Professor of Digital Urban Systems and Director of The Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis.
Professor Andrew Hudson-Smith is Director of The Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA) at University College London. Andy is a Professor of Digital Urban Systems and Editor-in-Chief of Future Internet Journal, he is also an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a member of the Greater London Authority Smart London Board. With a research focus on location based digital technologies he has been at the forefront of web technologies for communication, outreach and linked to the digital built environment. He has been a Co-I/Pi on over 20 research grants recent grant output focused on the Internet of Things and urban spaces. His contribution to knowledge and outreach in the fields of the Internet of Things, smart cities, big data, digital geography, urban planning and the built environment have been wide ranging with an impact strategy focused on policy, outreach and the public understanding of science. His research can be found at http://www.digitalurban.org or @digitalurban on Twitter.
Dr Peter Kok
Sir Henry Dale Fellow, Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, UCL.
Peter Kok is a Sir Henry Dale Fellow at the Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging at University College London. Before joining UCL, he completed his PhD at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour in The Netherlands, and was a post-doctoral researcher at Princeton University and Yale University. His research programme centres on how our prior knowledge of the world influences the way we perceive it. This work uses a variety of cutting-edge neuroimaging methods, such as layer-specific fMRI at high field (7T), and time-resolved decoding using MEG, to uncover the neural mechanisms underlying perception. Ultimately, the goal is to understand how the brain combines prior knowledge and sensory inputs to achieve at a ‘best guess’ of what’s out there in the world.
Dr Anna Kuppuswamy
Principal Research Fellow, Department of Clinical & Movement Neuroscience, Institute of Neurology, UCL.
Dr Anna Kuppuswamy is a Principal Research Fellow at the Department of Clinical and Movement Neuroscience in the Institute of Neurology. She is a motor and behavioural neuroscientist and her lab’s main focus is to gain a mechanistic understanding of pathological fatigue in neurological conditions (https://the-effort-lab.wixsite.com/fatigue). Mechanistic work on fatigue revolves around the idea that pathological fatigue is driven by altered sensorimotor processing, including multi-sensory processing. Techniques employed within her lab include non-invasive brain stimulation (TMS, tDCS), brain imaging such as EEG, and psychophysical paradigms.
Dr Pranjal Mehta
Associate Professor Experimental Psychology, Faculty of Brain Sciences.
Pranjal Mehta combines approaches from social-personality psychology and behavioural neuroendocrinology to investigate social hierarchies, emotion, decision making, and social cognition. He conducts this work in both the laboratory and the field. For example, he has led longitudinal research projects of a US presidential election and the covid-19 pandemic. Currently he is expanding his work on social hierarchies to investigate the role of demographic diversity in hierarchies, as well as the implications of his work for public policy. His further research interests are psychophysiological interventions aimed at influencing decision making, attitudes, and health outcomes across the hierarchical spectrum.
Dr Liam Mason
MRC Clinician Scientist Fellow and Lecturer in Clinical Psychology.
Liam Mason combines a rare skillset as a cognitive neuroscientist and clinical psychologist, to understand the neurobiological mechanisms of mood instability and also changes in brain connectivity following psychological therapy. His current research focuses on how moods bias how we perceive reward during decision-making, with a focus on real-life mood and behaviour using smartphone-based momentary assessment and computational modelling. He regularly publishes in leading clinical and neuroscience journals, including JAMA Psychiatry, Biological Psychiatry, and Brain. His research is covered by various mainstream media, including interviews on the Today Programme, BBC Radio 4 and Voice of America. Clinically, he provides research supervision, teaching and training to trainee clinical psychologists at the largest course in the UK, and previously co-led the bipolar disorder pathway within the National & Specialist service for psychosis, South London & Maudsley NHS Trust.
Dr Emily Midouhas
Associate Professor of Developmental Psychology, Institute of Education.
Dr. Emily Midouhas is an associate professor of developmental psychology. Her research explores the effects of the built and social environment on the mental health and cognitive functioning of individuals across the lifespan. She uses advanced quantitative techniques to analyse large-scale longitudinal data from complex surveys.
Dr Sophia Psarra
Professor of Architecture and Spatial Design, The Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis.
Sophia Psarra is a Professor of Architecture and Spatial Design at the Bartlett School of Architecture and Associate Editor of the Journal of Space Syntax. In her research she uses computer modeling of spatial characteristics to analyse spatial layouts in relation to social, cultural, cognitive and organizational performance. This analysis is combined with empirical data of users' activity to provide a detailed account of the relationship between spatial layout and human exploration patterns in different building types and urban environments. She has collaborated with leading cultural institutions on layout design and visitors' experience (The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA New York, The Natural History Museum, London, The Burrell Collection, Glasgow, The Art Gallery and Museum, Kelvingrove, Glasgow, The Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, and The Manchester City Art Gallery). In 2007 she led an interdisciplinary studio collaborating with neuroscientists on the relationship between space, memory, music and dance ('Arts and the Brain') in the context of the 'Arts on Earth' initiative, in the University of Michigan.
Dr Daniel Richardson
Reader in Cognitive Science, Department of Experimental Psychology.
Daniel is a Reader in Experimental Psychology at University College London. Prior to that, he was an undergraduate at Magdalen College, Oxford, a graduate student at Cornell, a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford, and an assistant professor at the UC Santa Cruz. His research examines how individuals' thought processes are related to the people around them. He has authored many scientific articles in cognitive, developmental and social psychology. He received two Provost's Teaching Awards from UCL, and has performed shows at the London Science Museum and Bloomsbury theatre combining science, music and live experiments on the group mind of the audience. Recently he wrote the popular science book Man versus Mind.
Prof Oliver Robinson
Professor of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience.
Oliver Robinson is co-group leader of the Neuroscience and Mental Health group at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience. Half of the groups work is clinical, but the other half is about trying to better understand ‘normal’ mental health. Anxiety, for instance, can be pathological but is also an adaptive response to potential threats that completely changes the way we behave and process information.
Prof Jennifer Rodd
Reader in Experimental Psychology, Department of Experimental Psychology.
After studying at the University of Cambridge and the University of Edinburgh, Dr Rodd moved to UCL in 2003. She is currently a Reader in Experimental Psychology. She conducts research into the factors that contribute to skilled language comprehension. Her research emphasizes the critical role of learning mechanisms for skilled language comprehension. She has a particular interest in understanding how an individual's idiosyncratic linguistic environment and their individual cognitive/neural learning mechanisms interact to produce variation in linguistic abilities. She has studied language processing using a range of methods including web-based experiments, computational modelling, and neuroimaging techniques such as fMRI and MEG. The use of ecological valid stimuli and learning environments is key component to her research. She believes that interdisciplinary approaches are key to making advances in this area. She is currently focused on building collaborations with education researchers and teachers to explore the contributions of schools/nurseries to vocabulary development.
Prof Yvonne Rogers
Member of the Executive Board, Professor of Interaction Design and Director of UCL Interaction Centre, Department of Computer Science.
Since 2011, Yvonne Rogers has been the director of UCLIC and a deputy head of the Computer Science Department. Her areas of research traverses Human-Computer Interaction, ubiquitous computing and behavioural change. She has developed new theories (e.g., external cognition), alternative methodologies (e.g., in the wild studies) and far-reaching research agendas (e.g., "Being Human: HCI in 2020" that outlined future challenges for Ubiquitous Computing). She has conducted seminal studies on technology interventions to deliver sustainable behavioural change in healthcare and energy use. Her work established "research in the wild" within ubiquitous computing moving the ubiquitous computing community from an emphasis of lab-based research to real world deployment. She was a founding PI of the Intel Collaborative Research Institute on Sustainable Connected Cities that investigated use case inspired basic research activity into the compute fabric needed to support the design of an urban Internet of Things at city scale.
Dr Kerstin Sailer
Reader in Social and Spatial Networks, The Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis.
Dr Kerstin Sailer is Reader in Social and Spatial Networks at the Bartlett School of Architecture at University College London. She investigates the impact of spatial design on people and social behaviours inside a range of complex buildings such as offices, laboratories, hospitals and schools. A particular focus of her work lies on social behaviours such as interaction and encounters, but also how people perceive spaces, how they make choices in buildings (where to move, where to dwell, where to sit) and the associated experience of visibility. An architect by training, her research interests combine the study of spatial layouts using Space Syntax methodologies with space usage behaviours, social networks, organisational theory and psychology.
Prof Tali Sharot
Professor Cognitive Neuroscience at the Department of Experimental Psychology.
Prof. Tali Sharot is a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London where she is the director of the Affective Brain Lab. Prof. Sharot is a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow, with past fellowships including the Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellowship, Fellow of the Forum of European Philosophy and British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship. She received her Ph.D in Psychology and Neuroscience from New York University and her B.A in Psychology and Economics from Tel Aviv University. Her research focuses on how emotion, motivation and social factors influence our expectations, decisions and beliefs. Her lab combines methods from neuroscience psychology and economics including neuroimaging, computational modelling and pharmacology manipulation. Prof. Sharot is also the author of The Optimism Bias (2011) and The Influential Mind (2017), both of which received the British Psychological Society Book Award.
Dr Aman Saleem
Associate Professor & Sir Henry Dale Fellow in the Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience and Department of Experimental Psychology, UCL.
His current research focuses on how visual information is used in active behaviours including movement, navigation, and escape behaviours. An example project in human subjects is investigating how visual processing is altered during movement, which we investigate using psychophysical tests using head-mounted displays in walking subjects. An example project in rodents is measuring brain activity while animals perform tasks in a virtual reality environment. The lab uses a combination of experimental and computational approaches to investigate brain function. The main experimental techniques include: virtual reality in humans and rodents, large-scale extracellular electrophysiology and imaging, and optogenetic manipulation of neural activity. More details about his research can be found here: https://www.saleemlab.com
Dr Jeremy Skipper
Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor, Department of Experimental Psychology.
I have been studying the neurobiology of language comprehension for the past 18 years. The emphasis over this period has been on understanding how we perceive speech under more real-world, ecological or naturalistic conditions and how the brain uses the contextual information that accompanies speech in those settings. Before coming to the UK, my work was supported by two relevant US grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institute of Health (NIH). The NSF award was for 'Acquisition of Neuroimaging Equipment For Acquiring 4-Dimensional Brain Data From Real-World Stimuli.' The NIH award was to study the 'Neurobiology of Speech Perception in Real-World Contexts.' I am currently a Team Member on the ERC award 'Ecological Language: A multimodal approach to language and the brain' and am part of a team funded by Amazon's Audible.com to use fMRI to study people listening to audiobooks and watch movies.
Prof Anthony Steed
Member of the Executive Board, Professor of Virtual Environments and Computer Graphics, Department of Computer Science.
Professor Anthony Steed is Head of the Virtual Environments and Computer Graphics (VECG) group at University College London. Prof. Steed's research interests extend from virtual reality systems, through to mobile mixed-reality systems, and from system development through to measures of user response to virtual content. He has worked extensively on systems for collaborative mixed reality. He is the author of the book “Networked Graphics: Building Networked Graphics and Networked Games”. He was the recipient of the IEEE VGTC’s 2016 Virtual Reality Technical Achievement Award.
Dr Nikolaus Steinbeis
Senior Lecturer and Independent ERC Fellow, Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology.
Dr. Nikolaus Steinbeis is Senior Lecturer in Developmental Psychology in the Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology and Independent ERC Fellow. He is Principal Investigator of the Developmental Change and Plasticity Lab (www.dcp-lab.org). His and his team’s research focuses on how real-life experiences impact brain development. He uses training and enrichment paradigms to gain insight into the operation of sensitive periods in the development of higher-order cognitive control processes.
Prof Nick Tyler
Member of the Executive Board, Chadwick Chair of Civil Engineering, Department of Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering.
Professor Nick Tyler CBE FREng is the Chadwick Professor of Civil Engineering at UCL. His research involves the study of how people and environments interact. This includes the study of interactions at a variety of scales, including the real world environment and in his life-scale environmental laboratory PEARL (Person Environment Activity Research Laboratory). He has been working for the last 4 years on the challenge of understanding how people with dementia see in the environment and how it might be possible to change environments (including the social and psychological environments as well as the physical on a project funded by ESRC/NIHR and in Japan. He has also been working with the Institute of Ophthalmology and the Ear Institute on the challenges of seeing and hearing in the real world environment.
Dr Ifat Yasin
Senior Lecturer, Department of Computer Science.
Yasin's research focuses on the relationship between changes in physical sound stimuli and the sensations and perceptions they produce, using techniques such as psychophysics, EEG brain recordings and psychological assessment. These methods are used to study how the brain integrates information from multiple sense modalities to influence auditory perception. Of current interest is the question of how attentional shifting affects our ability to hear "patterns" in the sensory world that help us in separating out sounds of interest from background noise.
Dr Fiona Zisch
Lecturer in Architecture, The Bartlett School of Architecture
Students
Hope Oloye
Ecological Brain PhD student 2019 cohort
My research interests are mainly situated within the social, cognitive and developmental neurosciences. While studying Neuroscience at the University of Oxford, I contributed to research groups investigating psychological mechanisms such as fluid intelligence, spatial awareness and attention, using virtual reality paradigms and computer games, as a diagnostic tool for dementia and to facilitate improvements in executive function respectively. I also carried out solo research examining the role of different attentional mechanisms in psychiatric & learning disorder symptomatology using behavioral and electrophysiological techniques. Since graduation, I’ve joined the Amodio Social Neuroscience lab at NYU, examining the relationship between social inequality and implicit bias. Specifically, I’ve been working on studies investigating the role economic scarcity plays in the implicit and explicit dehumanization of African Americans. During my time on the Ecological Brain Project, I hope to continue using a range of methodological approaches, to further explore the role an individual’s social context might play in their psychological development, and how this then impacts their psychiatric and educational outcomes.
Chongyu Qin
Ecological Brain PhD student 2020 cohort
I have had the privilege of teaching in secondary schools for the past six years. Prior to this I studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge, where I developed an interest in data visualisation during my Master’s project, on exploring the possibility of finding a candidate particle for supersymmetry at the LHC. Teaching has given me a fascination for the process of learning and developmental cognitive neuroscience. As part of my PGCE, I explored different theories of motivation, aimed at increasing learning efficiency, by conducting action research in my lessons. In the classroom, I gained a better insight into the role of emotion in cognitive processes and observed a variety of learning processes: long-term and short-term, direct and indirect. I was excited to hear of the ecological approach and interdisciplinary environment of Leverhulme Ecological Brain and hope to apply both my practical experiences and analytical background to the exploration of cognitive development.
Ava Scott
Ecological Brain PhD student 2020 cohort
My undergraduate degree in Human Sciences at the University of Oxford was a heavily interdisciplinary course spanning anthropology, development studies, genetics, behaviour and cognition, and neuroscience. I became fascinated with how the brain acts as a canvas for the interplay of these disciplines. I am interested in HCI, affective computing, and investigating how technology can inform and respond to emotional states, behaviour, and decision making. Further to this, I am keen to understand the ecological factors that can encourage cooperation and the consideration of new evidence, at individual and social scales. What kinds of language and environment encourage people to question their own certainties? This question is increasingly important in an era of polarisation and ‘fake’ online content. I’m excited to use the DTP explore a range of disciplines, selecting a variety of methods and ideas from each to build inventive yet naturalistic research paradigms.
Yan Wu
Ecological Brain PhD student 2020 cohort
My research interests lie in language, emotion and memory. I completed my undergraduate degree in Psychology at the University of Cambridge. I interned with Professor Hailan Hu at Zhejiang University after my first year, investigating the role of social recognition in social hierarchy in mice. I conducted a behavioural study for my final year project, investigating the effect of switching between emotional and neutral contexts on temporal order memory, a component of episodic memory. After completing my undergraduate degree, I interned with Professor Si Wu at Peking University, working on computational models for memory and learning. I have realized the importance of a) interdisciplinary research; b) studying the brain in real-life settings; and c) progressions in technology, which push advancements in research. These align with the vision of the Ecological Brain DTP. I look forward to working with supervisors from different fields and UCL’s state-of-the-art facilities.
Lauren Bennett
Ecological Brain PhD student 2021 cohort
Working across neuroscience, statistical modelling and machine learning, my research aims to understand how human cognition interacts with the built environment. After completing a Bachelor of Biomedicine in Neuroscience as a Chancellor’s Scholar at the University of Melbourne, I pursued the field of behavioural modelling by studying an MPhil in Economics at the University of Oxford. In 2020, I expanded my interest in machine learning by working as a Natural Language Programmer at the Oxford Martin School, using quantitative linguistics to enrich behavioural models. Within the EcoBrain programme, I aim to deepen my investigation of human behaviour by exploring how the built environment impacts our cognition.
Olivia Macmillan Scott
Ecological Brain PhD student 2021 cohort
My research interests lie in human behaviour, particularly decision-making and how this relates to themes of conflict, cooperation and competition. During my time at UCL studying BASc Arts and Sciences, I chose to focus my dissertation on agent-based modelling of civil conflict. The aim of the research was to gain a better understanding of what kinds of factors affect the behaviour of actors involved in conflict, with a view to analyse ‘what-if’ scenarios. Over the next four years, as part of the Ecological Brain DTP, I hope to maintain an interdisciplinary approach to the study of human behaviour in the real world, in particular employing computational methods to contribute to our understanding of human behaviour. I believe a cross-disciplinary approach is extremely valuable in conducting research that is reflective of real-world interaction
Sascha Woelk
Ecological Brain PhD student 2021 cohort
My research interests are centred around emotion, consciousness, and decision-making. I recently completed a MSc in Social Cognition at UCL, during which I investigated the mechanism by which mood biases confidence during reinforcement learning. Prior to this I worked for 10 years in industry with a focus on venture capital, operations management, and data science. My goal for the DTP is to leverage the intersection between neuroimaging and modern data science to further our understanding of the brain and human behaviour. Of particular importance to me is the unique position of the Ecobrain programme at the crossroads of multiple scientific disciplines. This makes me confident that my work will have a real-world impact, that not only improves theoretical understanding, but that simultaneously has the promise of making a valuable contribution to society and human well-being.
Ben Borthwick
Ecological Brain PhD student 2021 cohort
My background and research interests are in neuroscience, having completed the BSc and MSc programmes at UCL. I’m interested in how the brain prioritises memories for consolidation, and how this process can be disrupted. We live in the age of information overload, yet have a limited understanding of how this affects cognition. My MSc project in the Akrami lab at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre focussed on rodent working memory; however, I look forward to carrying out human studies of memory prioritisation, in particular taking advantage of the PEARL facility offered by UCL. I will then combine this with chronic electrophysiological recording in rats while they perform related memory tasks, with a focus on behavioural paradigms that are as naturalistic as possible. This will allow me to contrast cross-species data generated from paradigms with a range of experimental control and ecological validity.
Kaho Magami
Ecological Brain PhD student 2021 cohort
I am currently interested in sound saliency, an essential factor in designing alarm sounds and other soundscapes. Having completed my masters in Cognitive Neuroscience at UCL, I have researched the complex nature of alarm sounds under the supervision of Professor Maria Chait. After completing my master’s degree, I took a year to extend my perspective in brain imaging and auditory neuroscience at the University of Tokyo and the University of Tokyo Hospital. I was involved in an fMRI study of ADHD children, as well as working on rhythm perception in animals. Furthermore, I gained exposure in evaluating the effectiveness of an app to alleviate tinnitus perception.
I am excited to start my new journey at the Ecological Brain DTP, as ecological validity is a key concept yet an unexplored area of sound saliency. By researching this area, I hope to open doors in optimizing alarm systems in our chaotic lives.
Management Team
Prof Gabriella Vigliocco
Ecological Brain Programme Director
Prof Hugo Spiers
Ecological Brain Programme Co-Director
Prof Nick Tyler
Ecological Brain Programme Co-Director
Prof Eirini Flouri
Member of the Executive Board
Prof Andy Hudson-Smith
Member of the Executive Board
Prof Yvonne Rogers
Member of the Executive Board
Prof Anthony Steed
Member of the Executive Board
Mrs Warda Sharif
Programme Administrator
Advisory Board
Chair Advisory Board
Wendy Jephson is Head of Behavioural Sciences for Market Technology Risk and Surveillance solutions at Nasdaq. Wendy is responsible for leading a unique team of experts that combines behavioural science, financial domain knowledge, and advanced analytics to bring diverse thinking and cross-industry experience to designing and delivering technology that solves some of the biggest challenges in financial services. Dual qualified as a commercial lawyer and Business Psychologist with domain expertise in healthcare and financial services, in her role as Co-Founder Wendy was instrumental in the original vision, growth phase and the recent acquisition of Sybenetix by Nasdaq. As Head of Behavioural Sciences at Nasdaq Wendy and her team work closely with clients using behavioural science methodology to dive deeply into complex challenges facing the financial industry. Together they are designing innovative technology for Conduct Risk and Financial Crime that can deliver efficiency, consistency and greater resilience to our organisations. Recognised as a leader in her field, Wendy regularly delivers keynotes to Regulators, Buy and Sell-side organisations and leading universities around the world on topics as diverse as AI, Surveillance, Technology Design, Cognitive Engineering, Organisational Resilience and Conduct and Culture.
Member Advisory Board
Adam is an architect and designer who’s the creative force and founder of FreeState, the pioneering experience masterplanning agency. Based in London but working globally, Adam and his team advise some of the world’s most innovative brand-builders and city-makers – including Sony, Virgin Atlantic, MTV, Brookfield Property, The Crown Estate and Melbourne Airport. Adam takes a singular approach to the art and science of experience masterplanning, whether he’s working on commercial, transport or university campuses. It begins with translating the ideal experience into an ‘underlay’ for everything that follows. That ensures every touchpoint – from architecture to interiors to technology to curation to hosting – meets the needs of the audience and gives them the greatest journey. He’s an evangelist for the cause and travels the world meeting with key decision makers and giving talks on the future of experience design. A lifelong advocate of the truly transformational experience, his abiding passions are the experiential wonders of the English landscape garden, the Shaman, and the Las Vegas casino.
Member Advisory Board
Since 2017 Albrecht Schmidt is full professor for Human-Centered Ubiquitous Media in the computer science department of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München in Germany. He held several prior academic positions at different universities, including Stuttgart, Duisburg-Essen, and Bonn and also worked as a researcher at the Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems and at Microsoft Research in Cambridge. In 2018 he was elected to the ACM CHI Academy. Albrecht Schmidt is excited about amplifying the human mind and improving cognition and perception through information technology. In his research, he investigates the inherent complexity of human-computer interaction in ubiquitous computing environments, particularly in view of increasing computer intelligence and system autonomy. Over the years, Albrecht worked on automotive user interfaces, tangible interaction, interactive public display systems, interaction with intelligent systems and artificial intelligence, and physiological interfaces.
Member Advisory Board
Harriet is a Senior Policy Officer at the Office of the Children’s Commissioner; this is a statutory body responsible for promoting and protecting the rights of children as set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The office has a particular focus on the most vulnerable children – those who are living away from their families in care, mental health institutions, or youth offending settings and those children who have a social worker. Harriet works across a wide range of policy areas, but with a particular focus on early years policy, domestic abuse and children living in secure settings. Her work involves authoring reports to highlight the needs of these children and make policy recommendations, and then working with civil servants, parliamentarians, charities and other groups in order to advocate these proposals. Harriet has worked in children’s policy for think tanks and charities, and also spent two years working as a child protection social worker, and has a keen interest in learning more about the most effective ways to support children facing adversity.
Alumni
2018 cohort: Laura Convertino, Sara De Felice, Lara Gregorians, Marie Müller, Sebastijan Veselič
2019 cohort: Kaarina Aho, Peter Kirk, Leon Reicherts, Nicole Engeler, Viktor Kewenig
2020 cohort: Benjy Barnett
2021 cohort: Liza Tennant