Prof Vincent Walsh
Professor of Human Brain Research
Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience
Div of Psychology & Lang Sciences
- Joined UCL
- 1st Oct 2002
Research summary
The research group I lead is called Applied Cognitive Neuroscience (ACN). The goal is to use neuroscience to improve high performance in sport, high pressure decision making and advancing human brain stimulation in cognition and health. I am particularly interested in sleep, plasticity and extending classical findings to everyday situations. Traditional strengths of my group's work has been investigations of the functions of the parietal lobe, the frontal eye fields and their interactions with primary and secondary visual areas. The techniques my group uses include transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and DC stimulation in which I have particular expertise, home sleep recordings, EEG.
I teach on the UCL BASc degree and offer a course called Psychology in the Real World.
Current PhD projects are:
Sleep and circadian rhythms in blind populations (Danny Ball)
Decision Making in the work environment (Huw Williams)
Brain Stimulation in Headache (David Lau)
Concussion in Rugby (Theo Farley)
Recent practical applications of my work have been with the maritime charity CHIRP (https://www.chirpmaritime.org/), Dunlop Sports, Team GB Rio squads, GSK Human Performance Labs, PEAK Brain Training and several businesses who wish to improve performance and decision making under pressure.
Teaching summary
My main teaching commitment is to the UCL BASc course. This is the UK's best undergraduate degree course. Not one of the best, the best. 40% of my time is given to this course and I mentor over students with a contact time of over 300 hours p.a. I also deliver a 20 hrs module called Psychology in The Real World which is for BASc students only.
For information about the BASc course go to: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/basc
Education
- University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology
- Doctorate, Doctor of Philosophy | 1992
- University of Sheffield
- First Degree, Bachelor of Arts | 1988