Cognitive Neurology Laboratory

We study attention, cognition and decision-making in healthy people and patients with stroke, Parkinson’s disease and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

A major interest of the lab is in visual attention and memory, with new research directions in understanding the basis of working memory – and how it might be impaired following brain damage.

Much of our patient research has focused on inattention or visual neglect following strokes affecting the parietal or frontal regions of the brain. If you want to know more about this condition, see the Review in Scholarpedia curated by Masud Husain.

We’re now leveraging the knowledge from such studies to Parkinson’s disease and ADHD. We are examining working memory, impulsivity and decision-making in people with these disorders, with a long-term aim of modulating these processes.

The laboratory also has a research programme on the functional role of medial frontal cortex. The focus of this work concerns the role of these areas in the control of movement, particularly of the eyes. Functional imaging studies combined with new behavioural paradigms have led to the development of novel theories of voluntary control of action.