Projects
2004 - 2007: Event-related high-frequency oscillations in visual object recognition, PhD project supervised by Prof M.M.Mueller (University of Leipzig), funded by DAAD. My PhD research investigated neural correlates of visual object representation. These experiments were the first to employ entry-level object recognition tasks (e.g., classifying an image as dog, penguin or chair, as opposed to simply manmade or natural) with electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate high-frequency neural markers of visual cognition and provided novel insights into ways in which image attributes and available perceptual resources affect recognition. Prior to that, the vast majority of EEG studies investigated superordinate recognition, even though in everyday life objects are normally recognised at the entry-level. Although EEG studies of induced high-frequency oscillations have since been shown to suffer from contamination from miniature, fixational eye movements, my work remains highly cited as its relevance goes beyond a single neural response, involving a range of dependent variables and providing careful interpretations of obtained results.
2006: Processing of ordinal and metric cues in depth perception: cue combination or biasing through prior information? Experimental Psychology Society study visit grant, supervised by Dr Marco Bertamini, University of Liverpool. This project examined conditions under which ordinal cues to depth, such as familiarity or convexity, can get promoted to metric status. We found that the metric effect of figure-ground biases can be driven by both texture and disparity-defined edges, which represents an important constraint on how such a phenomenon can be modeled.
2008-2009: Visual object representation, Postdoctoral Fellowship awarded by ESRC, conducted at the University of Liverpool.
2010: Time-courses of vision and haptics: an electroencephalographic study, with principal investigator Dr R. Lawson (Uni of Liverpool), funded by the British Academy. In this project, the aim was to compare the time-courses of visual and haptic object recognition under conditions in which both are forced to perform in a sequential, relatively slow fashion, which is characteristic of haptics.
2011: Neurophysiological correlates of Pavlovian-to-Instrumental Transfer (PIT) in heavy drinkers, with principal investigator Prof M. Field (Uni of Liverpool) and co-investigators Dr A. Rose and Dr L. Hogarth, funded by AERC.
2011-2014: Neural mechanisms of visual object representation in the human brain, a research project with principal investigator Prof M.M.Mueller and postdoctoral researcher Dr Matt Craddock (University of Leipzig), funded by DFG. This was a follow-up to my PhD project, on which I was a Co-Investigator. In 2008-2009, high-frequency oscillations in EEG were shown to be seriously confounded with miniature eye movements, as these saccades' signature signal was captured by convolution with high-frequency wavelets and was thus added to the observed response. We conducted a range of studies that differentiate recognition effects seen in eye movements, on one hand, and high frequency oscillations, on the other hand. This work also provided the microDetect plug-in for a widely used open-source Matlab toolbox for analysing EEG data, EEGlab. The plugin helps the research community to easily apply state-of-the-art methods of detection of miniature eye movements from EEG data.
2011-2013: Early advantage of luminance for object representation and its cross-talk with chromatic pathways in human visual scene analysis, BBSRC New Investigator award, conducted at the Univeristy of Aberdeen with postdoctoral researcher Ben J Jennings.
2017-2019: Elucidating the role of colour in shape processing in human vision, a Leverhulme Trust funded project with PI Dr Elena Gheorghiu of the University of Stirling and postdoctoral researcher Dr Damien Wright.
2017-2021: A spatio-chromatic colour appearance model for retargeting high dynamic range image appearance across viewing conditions, an EPSRC funded multi-site research project with PI Dr Rafal Mantiuk of the University of Cambridge, PI Prof Sophie Wuerger of the University of Liverpool and CI Prof Graham Finlayson on the University of East Anglia and researchers Maliha Ashraf and Minjung Kim.
2018-2022: Neural mechanisms of long-range spatial vision: an investigation of perceptive, integrative and association fields across the lifespan, a BBSRC funded project with CI Dr Rama Chakravarthi of the University of Aberdeen and postdoctoral researcher Dr Josephine Reuther.
2019-2021: Investigating the microstructure of human visual fields and generating low-vision applications, a BBSRC funded international partnering with the lab of Prof Daniel Coates (Optometry, Houston).
2021-2024: The neuroscience of the “Russian Blues”: re-evaluating the perception/cognition interface. A Royal Society funded International Exchange award to collaborate with Prof Yulia Griber of Smolensk University.
2023-2027: Helios BD: Lithium's mechanism in bipolar disorder: Investigating the light hypersensitivity hypothesis. This is a large-scale project funded by the Wellcome Trusts, with multiple co-investigators across different sites.
