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Meet the team

We are a research group at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit (School of Clinical Medicine), and Department of Psychology (School of Biological Sciences), at the University of Cambridge

Jade
Programme Leader
Alex Woolgar
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I am Professor of Integrative and Systems Neuroscience in the Department of Psychology at University of Cambridge. I am also the Deputy Director of the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit (Cambridge) and a Programe Leader at this Unit. I am fascinated by how the firing of billions of cells in our brains gives rise to our ability to perceive, think, and act. I especially want to understand the brain mechanisms that enable humans to pay attention - underpinning our ability to behave in complex, diverse, and flexible ways. To study this I draw on a range of human brain imaging and stimulation techniques, and develop approaches that push the limits of what we can ask about how the brain works. I am honoured to get to work with the brilliant bunch of  scientists below.

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Jade Jackson
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
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I use a combination of neurostimulation (TMS) and neuroimaging (fMRI/MEG/EEG) techniques to investigate selective attention in the human brain. Previously I have looked at how task-relevant information is prioritised in the brain (e.g., Jackson et al. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 2017; Jackson et al. Cortex, 2018), and the causal influence of disrupting this prioritisation on information coding across the brain (Jackson et al., Comms Bio, 2021). My current work focuses on the temporal dynamics of cognitive control, enhancement and inhibition, neurostimulation methods, and using neurostimulation combined with neuroimaging to causally link information coding to behaviour. 

Jade
Elizabeth Michael
Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Given the variability of our visual world, flexibility in how we process sensory information is a critical feature of efficient perception. My research focuses on how the visual system responds to different types of challening environment, using concurrnent brain stimulation and neuroimaging to identify the  neural processes that support this behaviour. In parallel, I am interested in how the efficacy of interventions (e.g. behavioural training, brain stimulation) interacts with individual differences in neural architecture and function.

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Elizabeth
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Hannah Rapaport
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
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The aim of my research is to develop novel methods for assessing the language abilities of autistic people who have no or minimal spoken language.

 

I completed my PhD at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. My research involved using paediatric magnetoencephalography (MEG) to investigate the neural basis of sensory perception in autistic and neurotypical children.

I am passionate about doing research that will be of benefit to the autism community.

Hannah
Moataz Assem
Wellcome Trust Early Career Fellow
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Moataz investigates working memory brain circuits. His research aims to understand how we “actively” focus on limited information while also maintaining a broader "hidden" cognitive background. To this end, he utilizes innovative combinations of advanced techniques such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), electrocorticography (ECoG), and precision functional MRI (fMRI), alongside anatomical data from non-human primates. This multimodal approach holds significant implications for circuit-based clinical interventions. Moataz is collaborating with top institutions globally, including Northwestern University, Washington University in St. Louis, the Stem Cell and Brain Research Institute/INSERM in Lyon, and the University of Oxford.

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Moataz
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Nadene Dermody
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
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My research uses multivariate pattern analysis of fMRI and MEG data to study how selective attention processes manifest in the brain, with a particular focus on understanding how frontoparietal "multiple-demand" (MD) regions might facilitate selective attention and goal-directed behaviour more broadly. My work investigates the neural mechanisms of selective attention in young healthy adults, and more recently has looked at how these processes might change following focal brain damage. I am also interested in the link between the MD system and fluid intelligence, and whether (and how) cognitive processes affected by non-MD damage might nonetheless be supported by this system.

Nadene
Runhao
Runhao Lu
PhD Candidate
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A distributed "multiple-demand" (MD) network across the frontoparietal brain regions is thought to be crucial for human intelligent behaviours because of its incredible function to flexibly and adaptively process task-relevant information. Although this network is commonly co-activated during demanding tasks, potential functional differentiation among MD regions have long been discussed but no clear consensus yet. My research aims to use M/EEG, concurrent TMS-fMRI and TMS-EEG to causally examine the distinct contributions of the individual MD regions. In particular, I ask whether these regions work differently in terms of enhancement vs inhibition during selective processing of visual information.

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PhD Candidate
Yuena Zheng

We live in a world flooded with information, yet our cognitive resources are limited, meaning that only a small amount of information is attended to and processed in depth over a period of time. I am interested in the neural mechanisms behind this selective attention, especially for the top-down control dominated by the PFC and driven by the current task goal. My current project aims to use MEG and computational modelling to investigate the dynamic neural representation of the PFC in the presence of visual competition and the information flow between the PFC and the visual cortex during this process. 

Yuena
PhD Candidate
Chentianyi Yang

It is estimated that 30% of children with autism are minimally verbal. Traditional clinical tools have struggled to distinguish the exact stages of linguistic or motor processing at which they have difficulties to express their thoughts through speaking. In my project, I will tackle this problem by investigating the mathematical functions of the brain using cortical entrainment. By analysing brain imaging data (e.g. EEG and MEG) and the predictions of automatic speech recognition models, I will bring new insights into the pathways of language processing for both autistic and neurotypical brains.

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Chengtianyi
Isabelle Woods Rogan
Research Assistant
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Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) has been hugely important in mapping out the causal role of different brain regions in affecting behaviour. Using TMS in combination with imaging techniques can help us understand the induced changes in the brain which affect behaviour.  In particular, I am using TMS concurrent with EEG (electroencephalography) to evaluate the efficacy of control conditions used commonly with TMS such as the sham coil, as well as to better understand the role of frontoparietal networks in visual attention.

Isabelle
Yi Li
PhD Candidate

About one-third of autistic individuals have limited functional speech, often using fewer than 30 words or simple phrases in spontaneous communication. The reasons behind this are complex and not fully understood, partly due to the limitations of traditional language and cognitive assessments in reliably measuring their abilities. Emerging evidence suggests that they may have intact receptive language skills, raising the question of why their spoken language production is impaired. Using non-invasive human neuroimaging (e.g. EEG and MEG), my research aims to examine the disrupted cognitive processes in the language comprehension-to-production pathways in non-speaking autism.

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Yi
Lab Alumni
Collaborators
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