School of Psychology & Neuroscience

Publications

I am Pablo Arias Sarah, a Lecturer recently appointed to the University of Glasgow, in the School of Neuroscience and Psychology. I study human social interaction mechanisms using real time voice/face transformations. To do this, we developed a videoconference experimental platform called DuckSoup which enables researchers to transform participants' voice and face (e.g. increase participants' smiles or their vocal intonations) in real time during free social interactions. We use these paradigms to study social cognition (e.g. social biases, social alignment).

Biography
I hold a PhD in cognitive science from Sorbonne University, a Master of Engineering in digital technologies and multimedia from Polytech' Nantes, and a Master of Science in acoustics, signal processing and computer science applied to sound, from IRCAM.

I am Dale Barr, a Senior Lecturer here at the School of Psychology and Neuroscience. My main areas of interest are psycholinguistics, statistical modelling, and cognitive science. Most of my work consists of empirical investigations into the cognitive representations and processes underlying spoken dialogue. I have published work on topics including pragmatics, perspective-taking, lexical processing, cultural evolution, speech rhythm, disfluency, and multimodal signaling. My recent work investigates how language users integrate linguistic and situational information (such as interlocutors' beliefs and goals) within the constraints of real-time dialogue. My research uses a variety of methodologies from visual-world eyetracking, EEG, and MEG to computational modeling and Monte Carlo simulation. I have also contributed to statistical methodology, developing techniques for time-series analysis of visual-world eyetracking data, as well as for linear mixed-effects modeling. I am a founding member of the PsyTeachR teaching team at the University of Glasgow (psyteachr.github.io), which developed an award-winning curriculum promoting reproducible data analysis.

Biography
I received a PhD in Psychology from the University of Chicago (USA) in 1999.

I am a Professor of Cognitive Science here in the School of Psychlogy & Neuroscience. My research addresses the nature of human conceptual processing and its roles in perception, memory, language, thought, social interaction, and health cognition. A current theme of this research is that the conceptual system is grounded in multimodal simulation, situated conceptualization, and embodiment. Specific topics of current interest include the roles of conceptual processing in emotion, stress, abstract thought, self, appetitive behavior, and contemplative practices. My research also addresses the dynamic online construction of conceptual representations, the development of conceptual systems to support goal achievement, and the structure of knowledge. For further information and lab publications, please visit our lab.

Biography
I received a Bachelors degree in Psychology from the University of California, San Diego in 1977, and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Stanford University in 1981. Before coming to the University of Glasgow, I held faculty positions at Emory University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of Chicago.

My name is Andy Bell: I am a specialist veterinary anaesthetist and pain researcher and current Wellcome Clinical Research Fellow. My clinical interests centre around the measurement and treatment of pain in veterinary species. I also conduct discovery neuroscience research into spinal cord pain mechanisms. I am particulary interested in unravelling the heterogeneity amongst the neurons that make up pain and itch circuits in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord. I use a variety of molecular, anatomical and behavioral techniques to investigate what defines neuronal identity and how this contributes to abnormal sensory function in pain states.

My name is Mick craig: I am a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology & Neuroscience, interested in how interneurons can control synchronous neuronal network activity, and how different brain regions coordinate their activity across long distances. While comprising only a small percentage of cortical neurons, inhibitory interneurons play a fundamental role in coordinating and pacing the rhythm of neuronal oscillations. My previous work has included studying slow oscillations in sensory and entorhinal cortices, and faster rhythms (gamma oscillations and sharp-wave ripples) in the hippocampus.

The research in my group uses a combination of virus-assisted circuit mapping, patch-clamp and in vivo electrophysiological recordings, combined with optogenetics / chemogenetics and behaviour, to understand the cellular circuitry through which different brain regions communicate across long distances. We focus principally in Papez circuit, with a particular interest in how the anterior thalamic nuclei and thalamic nucleus reuniens can mediate communciation through this 'extended memory circuit'. We are also interested in studying how these long-range projections are disrupted in mouse models of psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders.

Biography
I completed my undergraduate degree in Neuroscience at the University of Glasgow in 2006. This degree included a year in the pharmaceutical industry, where I carried out schizophrenia research at Merck, Sharp and Dohme in Harlow, Essex. I then moved to the University of Oxford to study on a four year Wellcome Trust DPhil in the OXION programme, working with Prof Ole Paulsen and Dr Louise Upton, graduating in 2011.

In the final year of my doctoral studies, Prof Paulsen moved to the University of Cambridge to take up the Chair of Physiology, so after completing my DPhil, I spent a few months in Cambridge before moving to the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, USA) in 2011, to work as a Postdoctoral Visiting Fellow in the group of Dr Chris McBain.

I moved back to the UK in early 2016 to establish my research group at the University of Exeter on an early career fellowship funded by the Vandervell Foundation, before taking up a Senior Lecturer position here in Glasgow in 2020.

Publications

My name is Christoph Daube: I am a newly apponited lecturer here in the School of Psychology & Neuroscience. I am interested in the auditory processing of speech as well as the visual processing of faces. What happens to the soundwaves once they have hit our eardrums, or the light once it has excited the rods and cones of our retina? How do we arrive at an abstract understanding of the stimuli presented to us? And what can neuronal or behavioural responses tell us about these latent processes? I try to gain insights into these questions through the perspectives offered by deep neural networks, magnetoencephalography and information theory.

My name is Lisa DeBruine: I am Professor in Psychology in the School of Psychology & Neuroscience here at the University of Glasgow, leading the FaceLab (see link above). My research interests include the links between human facial resemblance and kinship, the behavioural immune system and how pathogens influence mating and social behaviours, and meta-science. I am also interested in tools for open science, team science (particularly the Psychological Science Accelerator), data simulation, workshops on computational skills including R, Tidyverse, GitHub, and making websites.

My name is Ana González-Rueda: I am a newly appointed lecturer here in the School of Psychology & Neuroscience. I am an experimental neuroscientist interested in how neuronal connectivity forms and is shaped to endow neuronal networks with their unique computational abilities. My research focuses on the dynamics of how sensory information is perceived and then transformed into motor outputs and on studying neuronal circuits’ ability to adapt in order to support diverse and sometimes opposing behaviours.

Biography
I obtained my BSc in Human Biology and an MRes in Biomedical Research from Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, sparking my interest in synaptic plasticity's role in shaping neuronal connections. This led me to the University of Cambridge and Professor Ole Paulsen’s lab, where my MRes project and subsequent PhD research, funded by a Michael Foster Scholarship in Physiology, focused on how neuronal connections can be dynamically modified through synaptic plasticity, particularly during sleep. My doctoral research revealed that sleep enhances the efficiency of information storage in the brain by selectively preserving strong neuronal connections associated with specific concepts or memories while eliminating weaker ones.
Post-PhD, I joined Marco Tripodi's lab at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology first as an MRC postdoctoral Career Development Fellow and then as a Henslow Research Fellow. There, I studied how the brain interprets and transforms sensory information into motor actions I discovered that our brain acts like a motion sensor by prioritising the movement of sensory targets to drive behaviour—an insight that challenges traditional views of sensorimotor transformations.

Research Interests
At the University of Glasgow, my lab will examine the intersection of circuit plasticity and sensorimotor encoding, employing electrophysiology, viral and genetic tools, and behavioural tasks. We aim to understand how neuronal sensorimotor circuits support diverse behaviours and adapt to new or changing behavioural demands. This research will advance our understanding of neural plasticity and circuit functionality, with potential applications in treating neurological disorders.

My name is Roddy Grieves: I am a behavioural neuroscientist, and newly appointed lecturer in the School of Psychology & Neuronce. My research looks to understand how spatial neurons in the brain map the animal's surroundings, aid memory and contribute to learning and decision making, with a special focus on naturalistic behaviours and environments. This work involves recording the activity of single neurons in the brain of freely moving animals, especially rats.

Biography
I received a PhD in Psychology from the University of Stirling, under the supervision of Prof Paul Dudchenko and mentorship of Prof Emma Wood. As a postdoc I worked with Prof Kate Jeffery at UCL, then with Prof Jeffrey Taube at Dartmouth College. I am now a Lecturer in the School of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Glasgow.

My name is Shajan Gunamony: I am senior research fellow and head of MRI RF Engineering, based at the Imaging Centre of Excellence (ICE) at Queen Elizabeth Hospital working with the 7T scanner there. My specialism is radiofrequency (RF) coil development and in 2017 I set up MR CoilTech (see link above), to develop specialised RF coils to enable greater resolution in brain scanning. This will allow researchers to learn more about brain conditions such as stroke, vascular dementia, brain tumours, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s Disease than previously possible.

My name is Junichi Hachisuka and I am a Senior Lecturer here in the School of Psychology & Neuroscience. My lab works on the spinal cord mechanisms of pain and itch, using mouse models.

Biography
I graduated in medicine from the Nagoya University School of Medicine in 2002. After 3 years of clinical training in dermatology, I entered graduate school at Kyushu University, studying theitch mechanism of primary afferents. Then I returned to clinical practice of dermatology, especially skin cancer treatment and surgery. From 2012 I returned to research and worked as a post doc at University of Pittsburgh with Sarah Ross studying itch mechanisms in the spinal cord. There, I developed a new preparation that allows recording the spinal sensory neuron's activity in response to natural stimulation to the skin. In 2019 I took up my position here at Glasgow.

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Publications

I am Simon Hanslmayr, a Professor here in the School of Psychology & Neuroscience. My research focuses on how thoughts, feelings, or a face we attend to are produced by orchestrated neural firing patterns in distributed brain networks. Precise timing of this neural activity is required in order to represent information in brain networks, and to form lasting memories. Neural oscillations establish such precise timing, which is why I chose to investigate oscillations to understand how the brain implements cognition. To this end my research primarily focuses on attention and memory processes in healthy populations, but I am also interested in how these processes are affected in clinical populations, like patients suffering from Schizophrenia or Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder (PTSD). In order to study neural oscillations in humans my lab uses a broad array of electrophysiological and imaging methods from the global scale, such as EEG/MEG, fMRI, combined EEG-fMRI, to the local scale such as intracranial EEG and single unit recordings in humans. Going beyond correlating oscillations with cognition, we also study the causal role of oscillations by externally perturbing the brain via rhythmic sensory stimulation (i.e. flickering or amplitude modulated sounds), rhythmic transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and transcranial electrical stimulation (TES) and investigate the impact of such oscillatory perturbations on cognition. Finally, we integrate the findings of both data streams (i.e. correlative and causal) via computational models. These models make specific predictions which we test in correlational and causal experiments. My aim with this multidisciplinary, multimodal and multiscale approach is to draw a detailed picture of how the human brain perceives, stores and retrieves information.

I am Monika Harvey, Professor of Neuropsychology and Cognitive Neuroscience here in the School of Psychology & Neuroscience. My research interests fall in the area of cognitive neuroscience, with an emphasis on visual perception and the contribution of the two main cortical visual streams (dorsal and ventral) towards perception and action. My particular interests are in the syndrome of hemispatial neglect and investigating healthy cognitive ageing in relation to attention related changes (using EEG, non-invasive brain stimulation and virtual reality techniques). I am also working on using AI to predict brain age and cognitive impairment.

I lead on: Social AI CDT (UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in Socially Intelligent Artificial Agents

and am College theme lead for: MVLS2033 - College Futures - Fundamentals of Life

Biography
I obtained a degree in Psychology from the University of Bielefeld (Germany), followed by a PhD in Neuropsychology from St. Andrews University (UK). I was then appointed by the University of Bristol (UK) to Lecturer and Senior Lecturer, and the University of Glasgow (UK) to Reader and Professor.

Publications

My name is William Holmes: I am Senior Research Fellow in the School of Psychology & Neuroscience. My group reseraches novel magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods for biomedical research.

MRI is a powerful and flexible technology that has revolutionised diagnostic medicine, allowing detailed assessment of pathology and function. My research group aims to push the boundaries of MRI physics by pioneering novel methods for the in-vivo imaging of animal disease models, to further understand the mechanisms of disease and develop therapeutic strategies. My current research interests include cardiovascular flow, glymphatic transport, stroke and vascular dementia.

Biography

2005 - Deputy-Director, Glasgow Experimental MRI Centre.

2003 – 2005 Industrial Post-Doctorate, EXXONMOBIL Corporate Research and Engineering, USA. Development of MRI for investigating heavy oil recovery mechanisms.

2001 – 2003 Research Fellow, Victoria University, New Zealand. Supervisor Prof. Paul Callaghan. Development of MRI methods for Rheological studies.

1997-2001 PhD in Physical Chemistry. University of Nottingham. Supervisor Prof. Ken Packer. Thesis title “MRI investigation of multi-phase transport through porous media”.

1994-1997 BSc (1st) Chemistry and Molecular Physics. University of Nottingham.

Publications

Keywords: spinal cord, circuit mapping, anatomy, electrophysiology, transgenic mice, AAVs, chemogenetics, optogenetics, behaviour, confocal microscopy, electron microscopy, chronic pain, presynaptic inhibition, postsynaptic inhibition

I am David Hughes, Professor of Neuroanatomy here in the School of Psychology & Neuroscience. My research aims to improve our understanding of the complex neurocircuitry in the spinal dorsal horn, an area of critical importance in our ability to perceive the sensations of touch, pain, and itch. In my group, we use a combination of anatomical and electrophysiological approaches in both human and rodent tissue to identify individual cell populations and determine how their activity influences our ability to perceive different sensations.

The main focus of my work has been in collaboration with Brett Graham (University of Newcastle, Australia). We have identified populations of spinal neurons that influence how we perceive the sensations of touch and pain, and established that these cells also play key roles in the development of pathological pain states (tactile allodynia and mechanical hyperalgesia). These circuit mapping studies help us gain insights into how our nervous system processes sensory information and are aimed at identifying novel therapeutic targets for the development more effective treatments to manage chronic pain states.

Publications

I am Rachael Jack, Professor of Computational Social Cognition here in the School of Psychology & Neuroscience. I research the facial expression of emotion within and across cultures using an interdisciplinary approach that combines psychophysics, social psychology, dynamic 3D computer graphics, and communication/information theory. Most notably, my work has revealed cultural specificities in facial expressions of emotion; that four, not six, expressive patterns are common across cultures; and that facial expressions transmit information in a hierarchical structure over time. Together, this work challenges the dominant view that six basic facial expressions of emotion are universal, which has led to a new theoretical framework of facial expression communication that I am now transferring to digital agents, to synthesize culturally sensitive social avatars and robots.

Publications

My name is Kate Jeffery: I am a Professor of Behavioural Neuroscience here at the School of Psychology & Neuroscience, and currently Head of School. My research works on how sensory information is assembled by the brain into more complex, cognitive representations of the world. It focuses on the “cognitive map,” which is formed by the hippocampus and associated structures and underlies our sense of direction and sense of place. I am also interested in the link between architecture and the representation of space in the brain. For more about my research and other activities please visit my lab webpage.

Biography
I am a medically qualified neuroscientist from New Zealand. I moved to the UK in 1990 to undertake PhD studies with Richard Morris (Edinburgh) before moving to London in 1993 to take up a postdoctoral position with John O'Keefe at University College London. I then set up my own research group in the Division of Psychology & Languages at UCL, as well as a research cluster known as the Instiitute of Behavioural Neuroscience,and eventually became Vice Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Brain Sciences. I moved to Glasgow in 2022 to become Head of School for Psychology & Neuroscience.

Publications

My name is Michael Kohl: I am a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology & Neuroscience. My research focuses on how neural activity in primary sensory cortices integrates with activity in a higher order cortex, such as the retrosplenial cortex. We combine theoretical studies to make quantitative predictions about population codes and their information content to help us guide experiments. We also continue to develop novel experimental tools and analysis approaches.

Our ongoing research is broadly focused on three projects:

• Role of interneurons in somatosensory perception: We study how different types of inhibitory interneurons are optimised for controlling neural codes.
• Role of hippocampus and retrosplenial cortex in associative memory: We study the interplay of hippocampus and sensory cortices with the retrosplenial cortex during the formation and retrieval of associative memories.
• Tool development: We develop novel approaches for recording and manipulating the function of large populations of neurons.

Biography
I received a B.Sc in Neuroscience (2005) from University College London, and, as part of the Wellcome Trust Oxford Ion Channel Initiative, a D.Phil in Physiology (2009) from the University of Oxford. I carried out my postdoctoral studies at the University of Cambridge and Stanford University (2010-2011) and the University of California, Berkeley (2012-2013). I became an Early Career Research Fellow at the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics in 2013 and University Research Lecturer in 2018. I took up a Senior Lectureship in Neuroscience at the University of Glasgow in 2018.

Publications

I am a Senior Lecturer here in the School of Psychology and Neuroscience. My research interests range from quantitative methods (hierarchical models, Bayesian inference), visual perception (motion, stereo, visual memory, visual awareness, illusions) to human decision making (sequential effects, cognitive bias, rationality, free will).

Biography
I completed my PhD studies at Oxford University and Heidelberg University. I am a regular member of the Vision Sciences Society, Applied Vision Association, Scottish Vision Group and the Society for Mathematical Psychology.

Publications

I am Brian Morris, Professor of Molecular Neurobiology here in the School of Psychology & Neuroscience. My research focuses on the neurobiological basis of schizophrenia: characterisation of neurobiological dysfunction, identification of genomic abnormalities, and identification of novel drug candidates. I also investigate neuronal plasticity and the role of protein signalling complexes, mRNA translation, (including dendritic mRNA), and gene transcription (including transcription factors) in sustaining late phase of long-term potentiation.