Dr. Joseph Brooks

Title: Senior Lecturer in Psychology
Phone: Tel: +44 (0)1782 732963
Email: j.l.brooks@keele.ac.uk
Location: Dorothy Hodgkin Building 1.74
Role: Programme Lead, MSc Cognitive Psychology
Research Lead, Cognitive & Biological Research Group
Principal Investigator, Brain Electrophysiology & Perception Laboratory
Contacting me: By email or appointment
Brooks Joseph 200x200

Ph.D. (2006) University of California, Berkeley
Post-Doctoral Fellowships (2006-2012) University College London

My undergraduate degree was a double major in biological sciences and psychology at Carnegie Mellon University (Pennsylvania, USA). From there I moved west to start a PhD with Professors Stephen Palmer and Lynn Robertson at Berkeley where I worked on both visual perceptual organisation and studies of patients with hemi-spatial neglect. I 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.

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)?

Selected Publications

  • Etchells DB, Brooks JL, Johnston RA. 2017. Evidence for view-invariant face recognition units in unfamiliar face learning. QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY, vol. 70(5), 874-889. link> doi> full text>
  • Brooks JL, Zoumpoulaki A, Bowman H. 2017. Data-driven region-of-interest selection without inflating Type I error rate. PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY, vol. 54(1), 100-113. link> doi> full text>
  • 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, vol. 126, 120-130. 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. DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE, vol. 18(1), 50-64. link> doi> full text>
  • Brooks JL. 2012. Counterbalancing for Serial Order Carryover Effects in Experimental Condition Orders. PSYCHOLOGICAL METHODS, vol. 17(4), 600-614. link> doi> full text>

Full Publications List show

Journal Articles

  • Etchells DB, Brooks JL, Johnston RA. 2017. Evidence for view-invariant face recognition units in unfamiliar face learning. QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY, vol. 70(5), 874-889. link> doi> full text>
  • Brooks JL, Zoumpoulaki A, Bowman H. 2017. Data-driven region-of-interest selection without inflating Type I error rate. PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY, vol. 54(1), 100-113. link> doi> full text>
  • 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, vol. 126, 120-130. 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. DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE, vol. 18(1), 50-64. link> doi> full text>
  • Brooks JL. 2012. Counterbalancing for Serial Order Carryover Effects in Experimental Condition Orders. PSYCHOLOGICAL METHODS, vol. 17(4), 600-614. 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, vol. 50(7), 1393-1407. 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, vol. 49(7), 2090-2096. link> doi>
  • Brooks JL and Palmer SE. 2011. Cue Competition Affects Temporal Dynamics of Edge-assignment in Human Visual Cortex. JOURNAL OF COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE, vol. 23(3), 631-644. 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, vol. 72(5), 1431. link> doi>
  • Brook JL and Driver J. 2010. Grouping puts figure-ground assignment in context by constraining propagation of edge assignment. ATTENTION PERCEPTION & PSYCHOPHYSICS, vol. 72(4), 1053-1069. link> doi> full text>
  • Palmer SE and Brooks JL. 2008. Edge-Region Grouping in Figure-Ground Organization and Depth Perception. JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY-HUMAN PERCEPTION AND PERFORMANCE, vol. 34(6), 1353-1371. link> doi> full text>
  • Brooks JL and Driver J. 2008. Context affects figure-ground organization via perceptual grouping. VISUAL COGNITION, vol. 16(1), 91-95. link>
  • 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. JOURNAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL SOCIETY, vol. 14(2), 243-256. link> doi>
  • Palmer SE, Brooks JL, Lai KS. 2007. The occlusion illusion: Partial modal completion or apparent distance?. PERCEPTION, vol. 36(5), 650-669. link> doi>
  • Brooks JL and List A. 2006. Searching for the role of the frontal eye fields in the visual attention network. JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE, vol. 26(8), 2145-2146. link> doi>
  • Robertson LC and Brooks JL. 2006. Visual search and spatial deficits. VISUAL COGNITION, vol. 14(4-8), 851-862. link> doi>
  • Brooks JL, Wong YT, Robertson LC. 2005. Crossing the midline: reducing attentional deficits via interhemispheric interactions. NEUROPSYCHOLOGIA, vol. 43(4), 572-582. link> doi>
  • Palmer SE, Brooks JL, Nelson R. 2003. When does grouping happen?. ACTA PSYCHOLOGICA, vol. 114(3), 311-330. link> doi>
  • Palmer SE and Brooks JL. 2002. Grouping occurs both before and after constancy. Journal of Vision, vol. 2, Article 7.

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.

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