Associate Professor Rob Hester

Academic profile

Associate Professor

BBSc Hons, PhD

ARC Future Fellow, Senior Lecturer

Research Laboratory

Cognitive Neuroimaging Lab

Research area

Cognitive psychology and behavioural neuroscience

Contact Details

P

+61383440222

E

hesterr@unimelb.edu.au

Key research questions

What neural mechanisms underly control over our own behaviour?

What factors contribute to the loss of self-control?

Publications

Orr, C., & Hester, R. (In press). Error-related anterior cingulate cortex activity and the prediction of conscious error awareness. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

O’Connor, D., Rossiter, S., Yucel, M., Lubman, D. I., & Hester, R. (In press). Successful inhibitory control over an immediate reward is associated with attentional disengagement in visual processing areas. NeuroImage.

Lee, N., Pennay, A., Hester, R., McKetin, R., Nielsen, S., & Ferris, J. (In press). A pilot randomised controlled trial of modafinil during acute methamphetamine withdrawal: Feasibility, tolerability and clinical outcomes. Drug and Alcohol Review.

Rossiter, S., Thompson, J., & Hester, R. (2012). Improving control over the impulse for reward: Sensitivity of harmful alcohol drinkers to delayed reward but not immediate punishment. Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

Murphy, P. R., Robertson, I. H., Allen, D., Hester, R., & O’Connell, R. G. (2012). An electrophysiological signal that precisely tracks the emergence of error awareness. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 6, 65.

Hester, R., Nandam, L. S., O’Connell, R. G., Wagner, J., Strudwick, M., Nathan, P. J., et al. (2012). Neurochemical enhancement of conscious error awareness. Journal of Neuroscience, 32(8), 2619-2627.

O’Connell, R. G., Schneider, D., Hester, R., Mattingley, J. B., & Bellgrove, M. A. (2011). Attentional load asymmetrically affects early electrophysiological indices of visual orienting. Cerebral Cortex, 21(5), 1056-1065.

Nandam, L. S., Hester, R., Wagner, J., Cummins, T. D., Garner, K., Dean, A. J., et al. (2011). Methylphenidate but not atomoxetine or citalopram modulates inhibitory control and response time variability. Biological Psychiatry, 69(9), 902-904.

Luijten, M., Veltman, D. J., van den Brink, W., Hester, R., Field, M., Smits, M., et al. (2011). Neurobiological substrate of smoking-related attentional bias. NeuroImage, 54(3), 2374-2381.

Cummins, T. D., Hawi, Z., Hocking, J., Strudwick, M., Hester, R., Garavan, H., et al. (2011). Dopamine transporter genotype predicts behavioural and neural measures of response inhibition. Molecular Psychiatry.

Key statistics

Publication List

Supervising interests

Fourth Year: Cognitive control, error processing (learning from errors, error awareness) PhD: Neural mechanisms underlying cognitive control; self-control dysfunction in neurological and psychiatric conditions (e.g., drug dependence).

Teaching into

Neuroscience and the Mind

Psychological Science: Theory & Practice

Associations

Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society

Australasian Experimental Psychology Society

Australasian Neuroscience Society

U.S. Society for Neuroscience

Current grants

NHMRC ID 628495 - Neurocognitive studies of reward sensitivity in opiate addiction

NHMRC ID 1008044 - Performance Monitoring dysfunction in ageing

NHMRC: Genetic and physiological mechanisms of executive control (CIA: Bellgrove; 2011-13)

NHMRC: Cognitive control and brain connectivity disturbances in schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive (CIA: Yücel; 2011-14)

Yücel; 2011-14) Australian Research Council: The influence of reward sensitivity on learning and executive control (2010-12)

Links

http://hesterlab.org