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Current profilesPost-doctoral scientists Research assistant Graduate students Honours students Former collaborators Former graduate students Patrick Wilken, PhD.  Chris
Chambers
I have interests in several areas of cognitive neuroscience and psychophysics. My current position is funded by NHMRC and involves using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to explore the neuroanatomical basis of selective attention in the human brain. My PhD (2002) explored the auditory mechanisms that give rise to the octave illusion. The octave illusion is a compelling perceptual phenomenon in which a dichotic sequence of tones that alternate in frequency by a single octave is heard as a high pitch in one ear alternating with a low pitch in the other. As coordinator of the TMS laboratory, I am supervising projects undertaken by Mark Stokes, Jonathan Payne and Adam Morris. Other interests and collaborations include methods for achieving millisecond-precision timing on IBM-compatible PCs, the development of Visual Basic programming protocols for optimizing the timing accuracy of visual displays under Microsoft Windows, mechanisms of spatial remapping in the parietal cortex, and deficits of response inhibition in chronic and early-onset schizophrenia. Email: c.chambers@psych.unimelb.edu.au  Mark Williams
I completed my PhD at Monash University in 2002, titled 'An Investigation of the Cognitive Mechanisms underlying the Perception of Facial Affect'. I am currently working as a post-doctoral research fellow in the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory on a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) project investigating the brain mechanisms underlying perception of affective stimuli. Our current study assesses how selective attention influences brain activity associated with the processing of affective visual stimuli. In future studies we hope to expand this research into the area of affective touch. Other areas of interest and collaboration include developing computer software for millisecond-precision timing of visual displays and an investigation into the ability of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders to perceive and recognise faces. Email: m.williams@psych.unimelb.edu.au Nadja Berberovic
Email: nadja@unimelb.edu.au Adam Morris
Email: morrisa@unimelb.edu.au Jonathan Payne
Email: j.payne@psych.unimelb.edu.au Anina Rich
Email: a.rich@psych.unimelb.edu.au Jacquie Snow
Email: snow@unimelb.edu.au  Tracy
Long
In synaesthesia, sensory events in one modality elicit a concurrent sensory experience in a separate modality. Thus, for example, a person with ‘coloured hearing’ may experience the colour red when he or she hears the letter ‘A’. Many individuals with synaesthesia experience specific colours for the spoken or written forms of letters, digits and words. Previous research has found that this unusual perceptual ‘binding’ of graphemic or phonemic information with colour arises automatically, without the need for conscious control. On the other hand, recent studies conducted in our laboratory suggest that mechanisms of focused attention play a crucial role in modulating synaesthetic experiences. The purpose of my project is to examine the extent to which letters, digits and words need to be processed to induce synaesthetic experiences, using a variety of masked priming paradigms. The project involves testing a group of synaesthetes, drawn from the Melbourne Synaesthesia Database, which is maintained by the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory. (Supervisor: Jason Mattingley). Email: t.long1@ugrad.unimelb.edu.au  Mark
Stokes
My project is examining which areas of the brain are involved in spatial attention. Recent studies have identified sub-regions within the posterior parietal cortex that are associated with attention-related phenomena and influence perceptual processing across multiple sensory modalities. Such crossmodal attentional effects are important for the coordination of behavioural orienting between modalities. The present study is investigating which cortical structures mediate voluntary attention to spatial locations within, but also between sensory modalities. Transcranial magnetic stimulation will be used in conjunction with a psychophysical paradigm that manipulates endogenous shifts of visual and tactile spatial attention. This method will provide a sensitive and controlled measure of the behavioural effects following focal interference of normal brain function. Utilising both the temporal and spatial resolution of TMS, I hope to be able to determine when and where neural activity critical for voluntary control of spatial attention occurs within the brain. (Supervisors: Jason Mattingley, Chris Chambers). |
I
completed my Honours project in 2000. My study investigated the effects
of prismatic adaptation on spatial perception in neurologically healthy
participants. I am currently a research assistant in the Cognitive Neuroscience
Laboratory, working on an ARC-funded project entitled 'A neuropsychological
investigation of selective attention and awareness in the human brain'.
The project involves the investigation of patients with discrete brain
lesions following stroke, as well as neurologically healthy controls.
The aim is to examine the mechanisms underlying selective attention
in the human brain. Once this project is completed, I would like to
pursue further study comparing developmental aspects of selective attention
in normal children, and in children with autism.
How is it that we perceive a stable
visual world despite the fact that our eyes, head and body are almost
constantly moving? The posterior parietal cortex (PPC), a region within
the parietal lobe, has long been recognised as important brain structure
for representing space. The PPC and several other cortical (e.g. frontal
eye fields) and subcortical (e.g. superior colliculus) regions consitute
a distributed network for controlling both spatial attention and eye
movements. An important function supported by this network is the maintenance
of accurate representations of space in response to movement. Although
neurophysiological investigations in the monkey have identified several
neural populations within the PPC that show evidence of this "spatial
remapping", the specific role of the human PPC in the dynamic
representation of space remains unclear. My PhD project will employ
behavioural measures, functional neuroimaging, transcranial magnetic
stimulation and eye monitoring to further characterise the role of the
PPC in maintaining the perceptual stability of the visual world across
eye movements. While the focus of the research is on how spatial remapping
operates in the normal human brain, the behavioural consequences of
damage to these functions through brain injury are also of interest.
(Supervisors: 
After completing
my Honours degree in 2001, I am now undertaking a Doctorate in Clinical
Neuropsychology. This degree has three components: coursework, placement
and research. My research is concerned with elucidating the functional
neuroanatomy of visual and tactile spatial attention in humans. More
precisely, we are examining the involvement of various cortical loci
in shifts of spatial attention using a relatively new method of functional
brain mapping known as 
I
am currently undertaking my PhD combined with a Masters of Clinical
Neuropsychology. The focus of my research is synaesthesia, an unusual
phenomenon in which stimulation in one sensory modality elicits anomalous
experiences in different modalities. Some people experience colours
when they see, hear or think about letters of the alphabet, numbers
or words. Others experience colours from music or other sounds. More
rarely, we come across people with mixing of other senses, such as
a sound eliciting an odour. Synaesthesia is not a disorder, and is
only rarely reported to interfere with perception. My research focuses
particularly on synaesthetes for whom letters, numbers and words elicit
specific colours (colour-graphemic synaesthesia). Broadly, I am investigating
the cognitive mechanisms underlying this phenomenon using a number
of convergent methods. These include measuring synaesthetic experience
indirectly using behavioural and functional imaging paradigms. We
currently maintain a database of synaesthetes around Australia who
have contacted us about our research and we always like to hear from
people who believe they have synaesthesia! (Supervisor: 
I
am enrolled in the combined Masters of Clinical Neuropsychology/PhD
course. My research focuses on unconscious processing of visual information
in patients with spatial neglect and extinction. Following unilateral
hemispheric stroke, these patients show a characteristic lack of conscious
awareness for stimuli occurring on the side of space opposite the
lesioned hemisphere. These deficits are understood to involve a disruption
to mechanisms of high level perception and attention. The neural and
perceptual fate of neglected/extinguished stimuli and the factors
that affect whether such stimuli will be selected for conscious attention
are a matter of considerable debate; results differ between individuals
and across paradigms. I am examining the degree to which information
that is processed without awareness (in both neurologically healthy
and damaged brains) is influenced by the attentional demand, or "attentional
load" of the task. My research will employ a convergent approach
to the phenomenon of unconscious perception. Investigations will include
the use of novel cognitive neuropsychological paradigms combined with
functional magnetic imaging (fMRI) and transcranial magnetic stimulation
(TMS). (Supervisor: