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Microstructural abnormalities in white and gray matter in obese adolescents with and without type 2 diabetes (2017)
Journal Article
Nouwen, A., Chambers, A. L., Chechlacz, M., Higgs, S., Blissett, J., Barrett, T., & Allen, H. A. (in press). Microstructural abnormalities in white and gray matter in obese adolescents with and without type 2 diabetes. NeuroImage: Clinical, 16, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2017.07.004

Aims/hypotheses. In adults, type 2 diabetes and obesity have been associated with structural brain changes, even in the absence of dementia. Some evidence suggested similar changes in adolescents with type 2 diabetes but comparisons with a non-obese... Read More about Microstructural abnormalities in white and gray matter in obese adolescents with and without type 2 diabetes.

Relationship between parental feeding practices and neural responses to food cues in adolescents (2016)
Journal Article
Allen, H. A., Chambers, A. L., Blissett, J., Chechlacz, M., Barrett, T., Higgs, S., & Nouwen, A. (2016). Relationship between parental feeding practices and neural responses to food cues in adolescents. PLoS ONE, 11(8), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0157037

Social context, specifically within the family, influences adolescent eating behaviours and thus their health. Little is known about the specific mechanisms underlying the effects of parental feeding practices on eating. We explored relationships bet... Read More about Relationship between parental feeding practices and neural responses to food cues in adolescents.

Editorial: perception and cognition: interactions in the ageing brain (2016)
Journal Article
Allen, H. A., & Roberts, K. L. (2016). Editorial: perception and cognition: interactions in the ageing brain. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 8, Article 130. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2016.00130

Healthy ageing can lead to declines in both perceptual and cognitive functions. Many of the studies in this Topic demonstrate such age-related declines, but also identify links between them. Encouragingly, these links suggest that improving perceptio... Read More about Editorial: perception and cognition: interactions in the ageing brain.

Examining evidence for behavioural mimicry of parental eating by adolescent females: an observational study (2015)
Journal Article
Sharpes, M., Higgs, S., Blissett, J., Nouwen, A., Chechlacz, M., Allen, H. A., & Robinson, E. (2015). Examining evidence for behavioural mimicry of parental eating by adolescent females: an observational study. Appetite, 89, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2015.01.015

Behavioural mimicry is a potential mechanism explaining why adolescents appear to be influenced by their parents’ eating behaviour. In the current study we examined whether there is evidence that adolescent females mimic their parents when eating. Vi... Read More about Examining evidence for behavioural mimicry of parental eating by adolescent females: an observational study.

The ups and downs of global motion perception: a paradoxical advantage for smaller stimuli in the aging visual system (2014)
Journal Article
Hutchinson, C. V., Ledgeway, T., & Allen, H. A. (in press). The ups and downs of global motion perception: a paradoxical advantage for smaller stimuli in the aging visual system. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 6, https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2014.00199

Recent evidence suggests that normal aging is typically accompanied by impairment in the ability to perceive the global (overall) motion of visual objects in the world. The purpose of this study was to examine the interplay between age-related change... Read More about The ups and downs of global motion perception: a paradoxical advantage for smaller stimuli in the aging visual system.

Binocular summation of second-order global motion signals in human vision (2013)
Journal Article
Hutchinson, C. V., Ledgeway, T., Allen, H. A., Long, M. D., & Arena, A. (2013). Binocular summation of second-order global motion signals in human vision. Vision Research, 84, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2013.03.004

Although many studies have examined the principles governing first-order global motion perception, the mechanisms that mediate second-order global motion perception remain unresolved. This study investigated the existence, nature and extent of the bi... Read More about Binocular summation of second-order global motion signals in human vision.

Age-related differences in selection by visual saliency (2013)
Journal Article
Tsvetanov, K. A., Mevorach, C., Allen, H. A., & Humphreys, G. W. (2013). Age-related differences in selection by visual saliency. Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics, 75(7), https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-013-0499-9

We examined the ability of older adults to select local and global stimuli varying in perceptual saliency – a task requiring non-spatial visual selection. Participants were asked to identify in separate blocks a target at either the global or local l... Read More about Age-related differences in selection by visual saliency.

Parallel distractor rejection as a binding mechanism in search (2012)
Journal Article
Dent, K., Allen, H. A., Braithwaite, J. J., & Humphreys, G. W. (2012). Parallel distractor rejection as a binding mechanism in search. Frontiers in Psychology, 3(278), https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00278

The relatively common experimental visual search task of finding a red X amongst red O’s and green X’s (conjunction search) presents the visual system with a binding problem. Illusory conjunctions (ICs) of features across objects must be avoided and... Read More about Parallel distractor rejection as a binding mechanism in search.

Similar behaviour, different brain patterns: age-related changes in neural signatures of ignoring (2012)
Journal Article
Allen, H. A., & Payne, H. (2012). Similar behaviour, different brain patterns: age-related changes in neural signatures of ignoring. NeuroImage, 59(4), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.10.070

We measured behavioural performance and fMRI activity whilst old and young adults performed a temporal segmentation task (‘preview search’). Being able to select parts of the visual world to be attended or ignored is a critical visual skill. Both o... Read More about Similar behaviour, different brain patterns: age-related changes in neural signatures of ignoring.

Psychophysical correlates of global motion processing in the aging visual system: a critical review (2012)
Journal Article
Hutchinson, C. V., Arena, A., Allen, H. A., & Ledgeway, T. (2012). Psychophysical correlates of global motion processing in the aging visual system: a critical review. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 36(4), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2012.02.009

The consequences of visual decline in aging have a fundamental and wide-reaching impact on age-related quality of life. It is of concern therefore that evidence suggests that normal aging is accompanied by impairments in the ability to effectively en... Read More about Psychophysical correlates of global motion processing in the aging visual system: a critical review.

Bridging the gap between physiology and behavior: evidence from the sSoTS model of human visual attention (2011)
Journal Article
Mavritsaki, E., Heinke, D., Allen, H. A., Deco, G., & Humphreys, G. W. (2011). Bridging the gap between physiology and behavior: evidence from the sSoTS model of human visual attention. Psychological Review, 118(1), https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021868

We present the case for a role of biologically plausible neural network modeling in bridging the gap between physiology and behavior. We argue that spiking-level networks can allow “vertical” translation between physiological properties of neural sys... Read More about Bridging the gap between physiology and behavior: evidence from the sSoTS model of human visual attention.

Active ignoring in early visual cortex (2011)
Journal Article
Payne, H., & Allen, H. A. (2011). Active ignoring in early visual cortex. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 23(8), https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2010.21562

Selective attention is critical for controlling the input to mental processes. Attentional mechanisms act not only to select relevant stimuli but also to exclude irrelevant stimuli. There is evidence that we can actively ignore irrelevant information... Read More about Active ignoring in early visual cortex.

The role of contrast sensitivity in global motion processing deficits in the elderly (2010)
Journal Article
Allen, H. A., Hutchinson, C. V., Ledgeway, T., & Gayle, P. (2010). The role of contrast sensitivity in global motion processing deficits in the elderly. Journal of Vision, 10(10), Article 15. https://doi.org/10.1167/10.10.15

This study compared the effects of age on the perception of translational, radial, and rotational global motion patterns. Motion coherence thresholds were measured for judging the direction of each motion type as a function of contrast (visibility) a... Read More about The role of contrast sensitivity in global motion processing deficits in the elderly.

Using biologically plausible neural models to specify the functional and neural mechanisms of visual search (2009)
Journal Article
Humphreys, G. W., Allen, H. A., & Mavritsaki, E. (2009). Using biologically plausible neural models to specify the functional and neural mechanisms of visual search. Progress in Brain Research, 176, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0079-6123%2809%2917609-4

We review research from our laboratory that attempts to pull apart the functional and neural mechanisms of visual search using converging, inter-disciplinary evidence from experimental studies with normal participants, neuropsychological studies with... Read More about Using biologically plausible neural models to specify the functional and neural mechanisms of visual search.

Ventral extra-striate cortical areas are required for human visual texture segmentation (2009)
Journal Article
Allen, H. A., Humphreys, G. W., Colin, J., & Neumann, H. (2009). Ventral extra-striate cortical areas are required for human visual texture segmentation. Journal of Vision, 9(9), Article 2. https://doi.org/10.1167/9.9.2

A patient (HJA) with bilateral occipital lobe damage to ventral cortical areas V2, V3 and V4 was tested on a texture segmentation task involving texture bar detection in an array of oriented lines. Performance detecting a target shape was assessed as... Read More about Ventral extra-striate cortical areas are required for human visual texture segmentation.

Direct tactile stimulation of dorsal occipito-temporal cortex in a visual agnosic (2009)
Journal Article
Allen, H. A., & Humphreys, G. W. (2009). Direct tactile stimulation of dorsal occipito-temporal cortex in a visual agnosic. Current Biology, 19(12), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2009.04.057

The human occipito-temporal cortex is preferentially activated by images of objects as opposed to scrambled images [1]. Touching objects (versus textures) also activates this region [2–10]. We used neuropsychological fMRI to probe whether dorsal regi... Read More about Direct tactile stimulation of dorsal occipito-temporal cortex in a visual agnosic.

Decomposition of neural circuits of human attention using a model based analysis: sSoTs model application to fMRI data (2008)
Journal Article
Mavritsaki, E., Allen, H. A., & Humphreys, G. W. (2008). Decomposition of neural circuits of human attention using a model based analysis: sSoTs model application to fMRI data. https://doi.org/10.1142/9789812834232_0033

The complex neural circuits found in fMRI studies of human attention were decomposed using a model of spiking neurons. The model for visual search over time and space (sSoTS) incorporates different synaptic components (NMDA, AMPA, GABA) and a frequen... Read More about Decomposition of neural circuits of human attention using a model based analysis: sSoTs model application to fMRI data.