Dr Alexis Makin PhD

Senior Lecturer Psychology

Research

Research Overview

Symmetry is everywhere in the world, in bodies, molecules, galaxies and objects. Many animals are sensitive to visual symmetry and use it to guide adaptive behaviour. My research is all about the brain response to visual symmetry in humans. I routinely use EEG to measure a signal called the Sustained Posterior Negativity (SPN). This research program has revealed the conditions under which the brain responds to symmetry. Does it respond to symmetry all the time, whatever the participants task, or does it only do so sparingly, when symmetry is task relevant? We have conclusively shown that the retinal image is very robust, but the response to extra-retinal symmetry is fragile.

Our lab is also interested in new ways to achieve the scientific record. Publications are a 350-year-old medium, and the published record is neither complete nor reliable. We believe that future researchers will see their product as curated public databases (not simply a few snapshots and summary statistics in published articles). We have pioneered the new open science approach by compiling the complete Liverpool SPN catalogue on open science framework [Complete Liverpool SPN catalogue]. This is designed to meet the FAIR criteria (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable). The complete Liverpool SPN catalogue hopefully provides a good example in our open science promotion work.
[Complete Liverpool SPN catalogue]

Visual symmetry and EEG

Symmetry is everywhere in the world, in bodies, molecules, galaxies and objects. Many animals are sensitive to visual symmetry and use it to guide adaptive behaviour. My research is all about the brain response to visual symmetry in humans. I routinely use EEG to measure a signal called the Sustained Posterior Negativity (SPN). This research program has revealed the conditions under which the brain responds to symmetry. Does it respond to symmetry all the time, whatever the participants task, or does it only do so sparingly, when symmetry is task relevant? We have conclusively shown that the retinal image is very robust, but the response to extra-retinal symmetry is fragile.

Our lab is also interested in new ways to achieve the scientific record. Publications are a 350-year-old medium, and the published record is neither complete nor reliable. We believe that future researchers will see their product as curated public databases (not simply a few snapshots and summary statistics in published articles). We have pioneered the new open science approach by compiling the complete Liverpool SPN catalogue on open science framework [Complete Liverpool SPN catalogue]. This is designed to meet the FAIR criteria (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable). The complete Liverpool SPN catalogue hopefully provides a good example in our open science promotion work.Complete Liverpool SPN catalogue

Rate control

People can imagine things changing smoothly from one state to another. The simplest example is a moving dot. We can imagine it moving slowly or quickly. We can imagine a digital counter counting down towards zero, again, slowly or quickly. How do people control the speed of such dynamic mental simulations? I have been studying this since I was an undergraduate in Manchester in 2005, often with motion extrapolation tasks (Makin and Poliakoff, 2011). Last year I published a careful synthesis of this research, and elucidated the 'common rate control account'. This states that we have a central, supramodal timer or rate controller, which can be temporarily coupled to different sensory maps and control the speed of mental simulations (Makin, 2017).

Makin, A. D. J., & Poliakoff, E. (2011). Do common systems control eye movements and motion extrapolation? Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 64(7), 1327–1343. http://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2010.548562

Makin, A. D. J. (2017). The common rate control account of prediction motion. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 1–14. http://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-017-1403-8

Empirical aesthetics

It has long been the dream of scientists to demystify aesthetic experience, and derive laws relating objective stimulus properties to subjective preferences. We have made some headway understanding the implicit emotional response to visual symmetry (Makin, 2012) and the relationship between preferences and the neural response to symmetry (Makin, 2017). However, I believe that this field still faces fundemental challenges, as I argued in my recent Journal of Consciousness studies paper (Makin, 2017).

Makin, A. D. J., Pecchinenda, A., & Bertamini, M. (2012). Implicit affective evaluation of visual symmetry. Emotion, 12(5), 1021–1030. http://doi.org/10.1037/a00269241

Makin, A. D. J., Helmy, M., & Bertamini, M. (2017). Visual cortex activation predicts visual preference: evidence from Britain and Egypt. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1–34. http://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2017.1350870

Makin, A. D. J. (2017). The Gap Between Aesthetic Science and Aesthetic Experience. Journal of Conciousness Studies, 24, 184–213.

Research Grants

When does perceptual organization happen

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESEARCH COUNCIL

October 2019 - November 2024

How is symmetry processed and how does that influence visual preference?

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESEARCH COUNCIL

April 2013 - July 2016

How humans maintain an accurate representation of a dynamic environment

LEVERHULME TRUST (UK)

November 2012 - October 2015

Research Collaborations

Juha Slivanto

Project: CoI
External: University of Surrery

CoI on grant when does percpetual organization happen

Antony Morland

Project: CoI
External: University of York Neuroimaging center

COI on ESRC grant when does percpetual organization happen

Marco Bertamini

Project: CoI
External: University of Padova

Previous mentor and CoI on grant when does perceptual organization happen