Research in the Brain & Cognition Lab is characterized by methodological breadth, innovation and rigour. Our studies have pioneered new methods, including the first cognitive fMRI study; combined simultaneous TMS and ERPs to look at brain interactions; new non-invasive measures to track attention in memory such as microsaccades or pupillometry. We have described and implemented new analysis tools, such as multivariate fMRI and EEG decoding, temporally unconstrained MEG decoding, analysis of brain-state dynamics using Hidden Markov Models, and data-drive characterisation of rhythmic brain activity using Empirical Mode Decomposition.

Current topics of research include:

• Comparing dynamics of brain states in brain networks as a function of psychological and neurological disorders
• Developing methods to characterise and quantify the morphological features of rhythmic activity
• Refining methods to characterise, quantify, and compare 1/f property in brain activity

Theoretical perspectives:

• Draschkow, D. (2022) Remote virtual reality as a tool for increasing external validity. Nature Reviews Psychology. (Comment)
• Box-Steffensmeier JM, Burgess J, Corbetta M, Crawford K, Duflo D, Fogarty L, … Nobre AC … Wagner C (2022) The future of human behaviour research. Nature Human Behaviour, 6:15–24. (Comment)
• Nobre AC, van Ede F (2020) Under the mind’s hood: what we have learned by watching the brain at work. Journal of Neuroscience, 40(1):89–100. (Review)

Key empirical contributions:

• Quinn AJ, Lopes-dos-Santos V, Dupret D, Nobre AC, Woolrich MW (2021) EMD: Empirical Mode Decomposition and Hilbert-Huang Spectral Analyses in Python. Journal of Open Source Software. 6(59):2977
• Hajonides JE, Nobre AC, van Ede F, Stokes MG (2021) Decoding visual colour from scalp electroencephalography. Neuroimage, 237:118030
• Quinn AJ, van Ede F, Brookes MJ, Heideman SG, Nowak M, Seedat ZA, Vidaurre D, Zich C, Nobre AC, Woolrich MW (2019) Unpacking transient event dynamics in electrophysiological power spectra. Brain Topography, 32(6):1020–34 (Tutorial)
• Vidaurre D, Myers NE, Stokes M, Nobre AC, Woolrich MW (2019) Temporally unconstrained decoding reveals consistent but time-varying stages of stimulus processing. Cerebral Cortex 29(2):863–74. PMID: 30535141
• van Ede F, Chekroud SR, Nobre AC (2019) Human gaze tracks attentional focusing in memorised visual space. Nature Human Behaviour 3:462–70. PMID: 31089296
• Zokaei N, Board AG, Manohar SG, Nobre AC (2019) Modulation of the pupillary response by the content of visual working memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116(45):22802–10
• Taylor PC, Nobre AC, Rushworth MF (2007) FEF TMS affects visual cortical activity. Cerebral Cortex 17(2):391–9. PMID: 16525126
• McCarthy G, Blamire AM, Puce A, Nobre AC, Bloch G, Hyder F, Goldman-Rakic P, Shulman RG (1994) Functional magnetic resonance imaging of human prefrontal cortex activation during a spatial working memory task. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 91(18):8690–4. PMID: 8078943