Our methods
Our methods
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
Programme Leader
Alex Woolgar
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.
Jade Jackson
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
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.
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.
Hannah Rapaport
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
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.
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I am passionate about doing research that will be of benefit to the autism community.
Moataz Assem
Wellcome Trust Early Career Fellow
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.
Nadene Dermody
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
My research will focus on uncovering the mechanisms through which information is exchanged between the "multiple-demand" (MD) network and more specialised regions, such as visual cortex. While the MD regions have been shown to selectively and flexibly represent task-relevant information moment- to-moment, how these regions interact with domain-specific regions to give rise to goal-directed behaviour is not yet known. My current project aims to contribute to our understanding of this by combining MEG and fMRI data, using multivariate pattern analysis techniques, to derive a spatially and temporally resolved account of how and where information is exchanged throughout the brain.
Runhao Lu
PhD Candidate
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.
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.
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.
Isabelle Woods Rogan
Research Assistant
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.
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.
Lab Alumni
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Erin Goddard (ARC DECRA, University of New South Wales, Sydney)
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Amanda Robinson (ARC DECRA, University of Sydney)
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Nathan Caurana (Macquarie University, Sydney)
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Kimberley Weldon (University of Minnesota)
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Annelli Janssen (Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen)
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Catriona Scrivener (University of Edinburgh)
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Lydia Barnes (University of New South Wales, Sydney)
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Hamid Karimi-Rouzbahani (ARC DECRA, Mater, Brisbane)
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Christopher Whyte (University of Sydney)
Collaborators
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Anina N. Rich (Macquarie University, Sydney)
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John Duncan (University of Cambridge)
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Eva Feredoes (University of Reading)
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Jason Mattingley (Queensland Brain Institute)
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Nicholas Badcock (University of Western Australia)
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Andrew Thwaites (University College London)