Professor Mike Nicholls
B.Arch.St, BA (Hons), PhD (Cantab)
Professor
email: mike.nicholls AT unimelb.edu.au
All vertebrates have a clearly defined top and bottom. In the case of terrestrial vertebrates, the bottom is usually characterised by feet of some sort. Similarly, the front and backs of vertebrates are easy to distinguish; with the front usually being defined by a head or face. The one dimension that appears symmetrical, and which is so often confused, is the lateral (left-right) axis.
Despite the apparent symmetry of vertebrates, there are striking functional asymmetries between the left and right cerebral hemispheres - especially in humans. These asymmetries, which give rise to numerous asymmetries in behaviour, are the main interest of my research. While most people are aware of the preference someone might show for one hand or the other, they are generally unaware of the asymmetries that affect their ability to hear, see, touch and move. These asymmetries can have a profound effect on our ability to interact effectively with our environment and can affect everything from the cheek a person turns when posing for a photo to the side of the door they might bump into. My research programme investigates the nature of the asymmetries that occur in a world that is so nearly symmetrical with a particular view as to their function and why they may have evolved.
Research Interests:
Professional Associations, Memberships & Awards:
- Editor of Laterality
- Member of the Psychonomics Society
- Member of the Experimental Psychology Society (UK)
Recent Funded Research:
| Project: | Left of centre: Attentional distortions in the mental representation of space in healthy and clinical populations |
| Year: | 2009-2012 |
| Funded by: | Australian Research Council |
| Project: | Attentional biases that underlie free-viewing perceptual asymmetries: Endogenous and exogenous effects in a behavioural/imaging study. |
| Year: | 2005–2008 |
| Funded by: | Australian Research Council |
| Project: | Cognitive and Neural Mechanisms Underlying Llateral Biases in Human Vision. |
| Year: | 2002–2005 |
| Funded by: | Australian Research Council |
| Project: | Lateralisation of Brain Function as Revealed through Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation |
| Year: | 2001 |
| Funded by: | ANZ Medical Research & Technology Grant |
| Project: | Asymmetries for Cross-Modal Temporal Processing |
| Year: | 2000 |
| Funded by: | McDonell-Pew Network Grant |
| Project: | Visual and Auditory Temporal Processing in Varieties of Dyslexia. |
| Year: | 2000–2003 |
| Funded by: | Australian Research Council |
| Project: | The Art of Self-Expression: Facial Asymmetries in Communicating Emotion |
| Year: | 2000 |
| Funded by: | Australian Research Council |
| Project: | A Model of the Temporal Processing Capacities of the Cerebral Hemispheres. |
| Year: | 1999–2002 |
| Funded by: | Australian Research Council |
Selected Publications: |
Books
McManus, I.C., Nicholls, M.E.R. & Vallortigara, G. (Eds) (2010). The Right Hand and Left Hand of History. Psychology Press: Hove.
Journal articles in the past 5 years
Nicholls, M.E.R., Hadgraft, N.T., Chapman, H.L., Loftus, A.M., Robertson, J., Bradshaw, J.L. (in press). A hit and miss investigation of asymmetries in wheelchair navigation. Attention, Perception & Psychophysics.
Giummarra, M.J., Georgiou-Karistianis, N., Nicholls, M.E.R., Gibson, S.J. Chou, M. & Bradshaw, J.L. (in press). Corporeal awareness and proprioceptive sense of the phantom. British Journal of Psychology.
Nicholls, M.E.R., Chapman, H.L., Loetscher, T. & Grimshaw, G. (in press). The relationship between hand preference, hand performance and general cognitive ability. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society.
Loetscher, T., Bockisch, C.J., Nicholls, M.E.R. & Brugger, P. (2010). Eye position predicts what number you have in mind. Current Biology, 20, 264-265.
Loetscher T, Nicholls M.E.R, Towse J.N., Bradshaw J.L., & Brugger P. (2010). Lucky numbers: Spatial neglect affects physical, but not representational, choices in a Lotto task. Cortex, 46, 685-690.
Nicholls, M.E.R. & McIlroy, A.M. (in press). Spatial cues affect mental number line bisections. Experimental Psychology.
Giummarra, M.J., Georgiou-Karistianis, N., Nicholls, M.E.R., Gibson, S.J. & Bradshaw, J.L. (2010). The phantom in the mirror: A modified rubber hand illusion in amputees and normals. Perception, 39, 103-118.
Jarick, M., Dixon, M.J., Maxwell, E.C., Nicholls, M.E.R. & Smilek, D. (2009). The Ups and Downs (and Lefts and Rights) of Synaesthetic Number Forms: Validation from Spatial Cueing and SNARC-Type Tasks. Cortex 45, 1190-1199.
Yates, M.J. & Nicholls, M.E.R. (2009). Somatosensory prior entry. Perception & Psychophysics. 71, 847-859.
Johnston, D., Nicholls, M.E.R., Shaw, M & Shields, M. (2009). Nature’s experiment? Handedness and early childhood development. Demography 46, 281-301.
Loftus, A., Nicholls, M.E.R, Mattingley, J.B., Chapman, H.L. & Bradshaw, J.L. (2009). Pseudoneglect for the bisection of mental number lines. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 62, 925-945.
Loftus, A.M., Vijayakumar, N. & Nicholls, M.E.R. (2009) Prism adaptation overcomes pseudoneglect for the greyscales task. Cortex 45, 537-543.
Nicholls, M.E.R., Kamer, A. & Loftus, A.M. (2008). Pseudoneglect for mental alphabet lines is affected by prismatic adaptation. Experimental Brain Research 191, 109-115.
Nicholls, M.E.R., Loftus, A.M., Orr, C.A. & Barre, N. (2008). Rightward collisions and their association with pseudoneglect. Brain & Cognition 68, 166-170.
Loftus, A.M., Nicholls, M.E.R., Mattingley, J.B. & Bradshaw, J.L. (2008). Numerical processing overcomes left neglect. Neuroreport 19, 835-838.
Loftus, A.M., Nicholls, M.E.R., Mattingley, J.B. & Bradshaw, J.L. (2008). Left to right: Representational biases for numbers and the effect of visuomotor adaptation. Cognition 107, 1048-1058
Okubo, M. & Nicholls, M.E.R. (2008). Hemispheric asymmetries for temporal information processing: Transient detection versus sustained monitoring. Brain & Cognition 66, 168-175.
Nicholls, M.E.R., Loftus, A. & Gevers, W. (2008). Look, no hands: A perceptual task shows that number magnitude induces shifts of attention. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 15, 413-418.
Nicholls, M.E.R., Orr, C.A., Yates, M.J. & Loftus, A. (2008). A new means of measuring index/ring (2D;4D) finger ratio and its association with gender and hand preference. Laterality. 13, 71-91.
Nicholls M.E.R. & Loftus, A. (2007). Pseudoneglect and neglect for mental alphabet lines. Brain Research. 1152, 130-138
Nicholls, M.E.R., Loftus, A., Meyer, K. & Mattingley, J.B. (2007). Things that go bump in the right: The effect of unimanual activity on rightward collisions. Neuropsychologia 45, 1122-1126.
Nicholls, M.E.R., Orr, C.A., Okubo, M. & Loftus, A. (2006). Satisfaction guaranteed: The effect of spatial biases on responses to Likert scales. Psychological Science 17, 1027-1028.
Okubo, M. & Nicholls M.E.R. (2006). A stimulus-dependent dissociation between the cerebral hemispheres under free-viewing conditions. Experimental Brain Research 172, 49-56.
Nicholls, M.E.R., Smith, A., Mattingley, J.B. & Bradshaw, J.L. (2006). The effect of body and environment-centred coordinates on free-viewing perceptual asymmetries for vertical and horizontal stimuli. Cortex 42, 336-346.
Nicholls, M.E.R. & Searle, D.A. (2006). Asymmetries for the visual expression and perception of speech. Brain & Language. 97, 322-331.
Lim V.K., Bradshaw J.L., Nicholls M.E.R. & Altenmuller, E. (2005). Enhanced P1-N1 auditory evoked potential in patients with musicians' cramp. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1060, 349-359.
Okubo, M., & Nicholls, M. E. R. (2005). Flexible contrast gain control in the right hemisphere, Brain and Cognition, 59, 269-276.
Okubo, M. & Nicholls, M.E.R. (2005). Hemispheric asymmetry in temporal resolution: Contribution of the magnocellular pathway. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 12, 755-759.
Nicholls, M.E.R., Orr, C.A. & Lindell, A.K. (2005). Magical ideation and its relation to lateral preference. Laterality 10, 503-515.
Nicholls, M.E.R., Mattingley, J.B. & Bradshaw, J.L. (2005). The effect of strategy on pseudoneglect for luminance judgements. Cognitive Brain Research 25, 71-77.
Orr, C.A. & Nicholls, M.E.R. (2005). The Nature and Contribution of Space- and Object-Based Attentional Biases to Free-Viewing Perceptual Asymmetries. Experimental Brain Research.162, 384-393
Lindell, A.K., Nicholls, M.E.R., Kwantes, P.J., & Castles, A. (2005). Sequential processing in hemispheric word recognition: The impact of initial letter discriminability on the OUP naming effect. Brain & Language 93, 160-172.
Nicholls, M.E.R., Ellis, B.E., Clement, J. & Yoshino, M. (2004). Detecting hemifacial asymmetries in emotional expression with 3D computerised image analysis. Proceedings of the Royal Society 271, 663-668.
Nicholls, M.E.R., Mattingley, J.B., Berberovic, N., Smith, A. & Bradshaw, J.L. (2004). An investigation of the relationship between free-viewing perceptual asymmetries for vertical and horizontal stimuli. Cognitive Brain Research 19, 289-301.
Mattingley, J.B., Berberovic, N., Corben, L., Slavin, M.J., Nicholls, M.E.R. & Bradshaw, J.L. (2004). The greyscales task: a perceptual measure of attentional bias following right hemisphere damage. Neuropsychologia 42, 387-394
Nicholls, M.E.R., Hughes, G., Mattingley, J.B. & Bradshaw, J.L. (2004). Are object and space-based attentional biases both important to free-viewing perceptual asymmetries? Experimental Brain Research. 154, 513-520.
Nicholls, M.E.R., Searle, D & Bradshaw, J.L. (2004). Read my lips: Asymmetries in the visual expression and perception of speech revealed through the McGurk effect. Psychological Science 15, 138-141.
PhD Students under Supervision
Alissandra McIlroy
Catherine Orr
Jo Robertson
Post-doctoral Fellows
Dr Tobias Loetscher
Dr Mark Yates