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    •
    Dr Joseph Brooks

    Dr Joseph Brooks

    Title
    Senior Lecturer in Psychology & Dean of Research, Faculty of Natural Sciences
    Location
    Dorothy Hodgkin Building 1.74
    Role

    Research Theme: Cognition, Brain, & Behaviour
    Contact me
    By email or appointment
    Phone
    +44 (0) 1782 732963
    Email
    j.l.brooks@keele.ac.uk

    Biography

    Brooks Perception Lab

    As an undergraduate, I studied Biological Sciences & Psychology (dual major) at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania, USA (1999) and then went on to complete a PhD (2006) in Psychology (Cognition, Brain, & Behaviour) at the University of California, Berkeley with Professors Stephen Palmer and Lynn Robertson. My PhD work focused on visual perceptual organisation (figure-ground organisation) and studies of patients with hemi-spatial neglect. I then moved to London with funding from the Royal Society (and later the British Academy) to do post-doctoral work in the laboratory of Prof Jon Driver at the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience in Queen Square. In 2012, I started a lectureship at the University of Kent and was Co-Director of the Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience & Cognitive Systems until I moved to Keele in 2017.

    At Keele, I have served as the Chair of the Psychology Research Ethics Panel and as Research Lead for Cognition, Brain, & Behaviour from 2017-2020 and from 2020-2022 I was the School of Psychology Research Director. In January 2023, I was appointed as Dean of Research for the Faculty of Natural Sciences.

    I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Association (FHEA), Fellow of the Psychonomic Society (FPsyS), and a member of the Experimental Psychology Society (EPS) and Vision Sciences Society (VSS).

    Research and scholarship

    My research interests include visual perception and attention and the neural processes that give rise to them. In particular, my work focuses on perceptual organisation processes such as figure-ground organisation and perceptual grouping which play a role in determining the structure, shape, and depth that we perceive in visual scenes. This work often involves the study of ambiguous images (e.g., faces/vase image) or visual illusions. I use a combination of EEG, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), psychophysics, eye movement tracking, and studies of neurological patients (e.g., hemispatial neglect and agnosia) to study these topics. An emerging strand of my work focuses on methods issues especially those related to safe and powerful EEG/ERP quantification.

    Visual Perception & Attention

    • How does our visual system determine whether we see ambiguous images (e.g., face or vase)?
    • Why do we see visual illusions? Do different visual illusions share neural mechanisms or rely on different processes?
    • What visual features and non-visual factors affect perceptual organisation and illusions?
    • How does the structure of the world affect the way in which we move our attention around space?

    Brain Oscillations (EEG & TMS)

    • What role do oscillations in brain activity play in perception, attention, and other aspects of behaviour?
    • How is communication between brain areas involved in perceptual grouping and completion?
    • Can TMS be used to change brain oscillations and the behaviour in which they are involved?

    Methods

    • Developing algorithms to optimally counterbalance carryover effects in long experiments
    • How can we safely use our data to select ROIs in EEG/ERP analyses (i.e., data driven analysis)?

    Teaching

    Module Team Member: PSY-40053 Advanced Cognitive Neuroscience Research Methods

    Selected Publications

    • Adams J. 2022. The Photograph Superiority Effect: Investigating the role of stimulus format and distinctiveness in recognition.
    • Dundas K and Brooks JL. 2021. Multivariate decoding of EEG data reveals similar mechanisms mediate perceptual adaptation and spontaneous perceptual reversals. PERCEPTION (p. 218, vol. 50). link> doi> full text>
    • Bowman H, Brooks JL, Hajilou O, Zoumpoulaki A, Litvak V. 2020. Breaking the circularity in circular analyses: Simulations and formal treatment of the flattened average approach. PLoS computational biology, e1008286, vol. 16(11). doi> full text>
    • Abdallah D and Brooks JL. 2020. Response dependence of reversal-related ERP components in perception of ambiguous figures. Psychophysiology, e13685, vol. 57(12). link> doi> full text>
    • Somer E, Allen J, Brooks JL, Buttrill V, Javadi A-H. 2020. Theta Phase-dependent Modulation of Perception by Concurrent Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation and Periodic Visual Stimulation. J Cogn Neurosci, 1142-1152, vol. 32(6). link> doi> full text>

    Full Publications Listshow

    Journal Articles

    • Bowman H, Brooks JL, Hajilou O, Zoumpoulaki A, Litvak V. 2020. Breaking the circularity in circular analyses: Simulations and formal treatment of the flattened average approach. PLoS computational biology, e1008286, vol. 16(11). doi> full text>
    • Abdallah D and Brooks JL. 2020. Response dependence of reversal-related ERP components in perception of ambiguous figures. Psychophysiology, e13685, vol. 57(12). link> doi> full text>
    • Somer E, Allen J, Brooks JL, Buttrill V, Javadi A-H. 2020. Theta Phase-dependent Modulation of Perception by Concurrent Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation and Periodic Visual Stimulation. J Cogn Neurosci, 1142-1152, vol. 32(6). link> doi> full text>
    • Etchells DB, Brooks JL, Johnston RA. 2017. Evidence for view-invariant face recognition units in unfamiliar face learning. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove), 874-889, vol. 70(5). link> doi> full text>
    • Brooks JL, Zoumpoulaki A, Bowman H. 2017. Data-driven region-of-interest selection without inflating Type I error rate. Psychophysiology, 100-113, vol. 54(1). link> doi> full text>
    • Palmer SE, Brooks JL, Lai KS. 2007. The occlusion illusion: partial modal completion or apparent distance?. Perception, 650-669, vol. 36(5). link> doi>
    • Romei V, Bauer M, Brooks JL, Economides M, Penny W, Thut G, Driver J, Bestmann S. 2016. Causal evidence that intrinsic beta-frequency is relevant for enhanced signal propagation in the motor system as shown through rhythmic TMS. Neuroimage, 120-130, vol. 126. link> doi> full text>
    • Lev M, Gilaie-Dotan S, Gotthilf-Nezri D, Yehezkel O, Brooks JL, Perry A, Bentin S, Bonneh Y, Polat U. 2015. Training-induced recovery of low-level vision followed by mid-level perceptual improvements in developmental object and face agnosia. Dev Sci, 50-64, vol. 18(1). link> doi> full text>
    • Brooks JL. 2012. Counterbalancing for serial order carryover effects in experimental condition orders. Psychol Methods, 600-614, vol. 17(4). link> doi> full text>
    • Brooks JL, Gilaie-Dotan S, Rees G, Bentin S, Driver J. 2012. Preserved local but disrupted contextual figure-ground influences in an individual with abnormal function of intermediate visual areas. Neuropsychologia, 1393-1407, vol. 50(7). link> doi> full text>
    • List A, Landau AN, Brooks JL, Flevaris AV, Fortenbaugh FC, Esterman M, Van Vleet TM, Albrecht AR, Alvarez BD, Robertson LC, Schendel K. 2011. Shifting attention in viewer- and object-based reference frames after unilateral brain injury. Neuropsychologia, 2090-2096, vol. 49(7). link> doi>
    • Brooks JL and Palmer SE. 2011. Cue competition affects temporal dynamics of edge-assignment in human visual cortex. J Cogn Neurosci, 631-644, vol. 23(3). link> doi> full text>
    • Brooks JL and Driver J. 2010. Grouping puts figure-ground assignment in context by constraining propagation of edge assignment (vol 72, pg 1053, 2010). ATTENTION PERCEPTION & PSYCHOPHYSICS, 1431, vol. 72(5). link> doi>
    • Brooks JL and Driver J. 2010. Grouping puts figure-ground assignment in context by constraining propagation of edge assignment. Atten Percept Psychophys, 1053-1069, vol. 72(4). link> doi> full text>
    • Palmer SE and Brooks JL. 2002. Grouping occurs both before and after constancy. Journal of Vision, Article 7, vol. 2. doi>
    • Palmer SE and Brooks JL. 2008. Edge-region grouping in figure-ground organization and depth perception. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform, 1353-1371, vol. 34(6). link> doi> full text>
    • List A, Brooks JL, Esterman M, Flevaris AV, Landau AN, Bowman G, Stanton V, Vanvleet TM, Robertson LC, Schendel K. 2008. Visual hemispatial neglect, re-assessed. J Int Neuropsychol Soc, 243-256, vol. 14(2). link> doi>
    • Brooks JL and Driver J. 2008. Context affects figure-ground organization via perceptual grouping. VISUAL COGNITION, 91-95, vol. 16(1). link>
    • Organized by, Castelhano M, Franconeri S, Curby K, Shomstein S. 2008. Object Perception, Attention, and Memory 2007 Conference Report 15th Annual Meeting, Long Beach, California, USA. Visual Cognition, 90-143, vol. 16(1). doi>
    • Robertson LC and Brooks JL. 2006. Visual search and spatial deficits. VISUAL COGNITION, 851-862, vol. 14(4-8). link> doi>
    • Brooks JL and List A. 2006. Searching for the role of the frontal eye fields in the visual attention network. J Neurosci, 2145-2146, vol. 26(8). link> doi>
    • Brooks JL, Wong Y, Robertson LC. 2005. Crossing the midline: reducing attentional deficits via interhemispheric interactions. Neuropsychologia, 572-582, vol. 43(4). link> doi>
    • Palmer SE, Brooks JL, Nelson R. 2003. When does grouping happen?. Acta Psychol (Amst), 311-330, vol. 114(3). link> doi>

    Other

    • Adams J. 2022. The Photograph Superiority Effect: Investigating the role of stimulus format and distinctiveness in recognition.
    • Dundas K and Brooks JL. 2021. Multivariate decoding of EEG data reveals similar mechanisms mediate perceptual adaptation and spontaneous perceptual reversals. PERCEPTION (p. 218, vol. 50). link> doi> full text>
    • Abdallah D and Brooks JL. 2019. Task Dependence of Reversal-Related ERP Components in Perception of the Necker Lattice. PERCEPTION (pp. 38-39, vol. 48). link>

    Student project supervision

    I regularly supervise Final Year undergraduate projects, MSc dissertation projects, MSc research apprenticeships, 2nd Year undergraduate volunteers, and PhD students. Projects in my lab typically focus on:

    • visual perception of shape and depth
    • visually ambiguous images (e.g., faces-vase, #TheDress) and visual illusions
    • control of visual attention
    • neurological patient deficits in vision and attention
    • electrophysiological/EEG measures of vision and attention
    • developing statistical methods for EEG

    I welcome enquires from prospective PhD students as well as post-doctoral scholars who want to work on these topics. I am very happy work with prospective post docs in preparing applications for independent funding (e.g., Newton Fellowships, etc.) in addition to any already-funded posts that I advertise. Please get in contact to discuss.

    School of Psychology
    Dorothy Hodgkin Building
    Keele University
    Staffordshire
    ST5 5BG

    Psychology School office
    Tel: +44(0)1782 731831
    Fax: +44(0)1782 733387
    Email: psychology@keele.ac.uk

    Accessibility
    Accessibility information for Dorothy Hodgkin Building can be found on its AccessAble page.