Clinical and Cognitive Neuroscience Group

Our key aim is to understand the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying neuroplasticity, sensory experiences, and visual health, with the goal of improving psychological resilience and quality of life for individuals with neurological and visual conditions.

We aim to characterise the neuroplasticity processes that support positive adaptation to environmental challenges and to develop personalised interventions based on factors such as age, sex, adversity exposure, and genetic risk for neuropsychiatric disorders. Additionally, we investigate the cognitive and neural basis of hallucinations and the role of mental imagery in mental health, including its consequences in conditions such as aphantasia and hyperphantasia. A further focus of our research is to explore effective treatments and interventions for macular degeneration and other visual diseases such as Charles Bonnet Syndrome and Hemianopia, aiming to improve the quality of life and mental well-being for affected individuals.

Our research employs a multidisciplinary approach, combining behavioural studies, neuroimaging (e.g., fMRI), eye tracking, transcriptomics, and polygenic risk analyses. We utilise both longitudinal and cross-sectional big data from neuroimaging and genetic population datasets, including typically and atypically developing individuals.

To investigate hallucinations, we use innovative techniques such as the Ganzflicker hallucination simulator and apply mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative) for analysis. In the context of visual disease, we incorporate clinical data alongside advanced neuroimaging and eye-tracking methodologies to explore interventions that improve mental well-being and quality of life. This integrative approach allows us to bridge fundamental neuroscience with clinical applications, addressing both theoretical and practical challenges in clinical neuroscience.

Decision Making and Computational Modelling

Aims

Our key aim is to understand how people make decisions and deal with uncertainty in information and knowledge, as well as how decision-making can be improved or optimised in important contexts. To achieve this, our research involves developing, refining, testing, and applying computational models of cognition, and developing and utilising a range of statistical and computational methodologies. We also aim to answer more applied research questions by applying the models and methods that we develop to other research areas, such as cognitive neuroscience, behavioural economics, developmental psychology, and social psychology. Importantly, our models and methods can provide unique insight into how people in different situations, and/or different groups of people, may differ in their ability to perform certain tasks, or the strategies that they use for certain tasks.

Approaches

Our research combines approaches from the areas of cognitive science, psychological methods, and experimental psychology. This combination of approaches is crucial to achieving our research aims: to ensure that the computational models of cognition that we develop and refine are accurate representations of human cognition, we must test them against empirical data, which requires advanced computational and statistical techniques. We develop and utilise a range of methodologies, including Bayesian approaches to statistics and modelling, simulation and approximation methods for fitting models with intractable likelihood functions, and experimental and statistical approaches for testing and comparing computational models of cognition.

Neurobiology of language and memory

Aims

Our goal is to establish how the human brain can perceive, understand and remember our complex real-world experiences, with a particular focus on naturalistic language experiences, both spoken and signed language and its interactions with memory. We also investigate how language and memory functions break down in individuals with brain damage to obtain unique insights, informative for cognitive neuroscience models of language and memory.

Approaches

Our research makes use of multiple methodologies, including functional and structural MRI (fMRI, DTI), EEG, computational modelling and TMS to provide convergent evidence on the neural basis of language and memory in healthy and patient populations, and to translate these findings from cognitive neuroscience to clinical settings.

Perception

Aims

Perception is one of the most scientifically mature areas in psychology. Psychophysics, Neuropsychology and Gestalt psychology are over 100 years old. In Liverpool, we study the way the visual system groups local elements into symmetrical configurations. We are also interested in preference formation. Why are some configurations appealing and beautiful? The visual image is not static. How do we compute motion signals? Finally, the visual system does not work in isolation. How do we integrate visual and auditory information?

Approaches

We use a combination of neural and behavioural methods. A lot of our research uses EEG to investigate visual grouping. We can measure signals from the visual cortex under and discover the conditions under which perceptual organisation happens. We work closely with the open science movement and carefully archive EEG data in public repositories (https://osf.io/2sncj/).

We investigate multisensory integration by combining behavioural methods (psychophysics, reaction times, motion and eye-tracking), computational modelling (Bayesian ideal observer models, biological cybernetics and neural models) and physiological measures (fMRI, EEG). This has direct applications for learning, rehabilitation and novel interactive technologies.

Social Cognition in Cyberspace research group

Aims

Our research investigates how individuals perceive, interpret, and navigate social information in digitally mediated environments. As human interaction increasingly unfolds through screens, platforms (including AI), and immersive technologies, understanding the cognitive, emotional, and behavioural mechanisms that shape online social life has become essential. We explore how digital contexts influence social understanding, identity, communication, motivation, and well-being, and how these processes differ from, or extend beyond, traditional offline social cognition.
Our work spans fundamental psychological mechanisms and applied challenges, bridging cognitive science, cyberpsychology, and technology-enhanced learning.

Approaches

Our research uses a blend of behavioural, cognitive, and technology-driven approaches to understand how people think, feel, and interact in digital environments. We study online behaviour through controlled experiments, naturalistic observations, and mixed‑method designs that reveal how individuals interpret social cues, manage uncertainty, and construct identity in mediated spaces. Alongside these behavioural insights, we examine the cognitive processes that shape online interaction, including attention, decision‑making, motivation, and metacognition.

Digital technologies are central to our work. Virtual reality allows us to recreate immersive social encounters with experimental precision, while learning analytics and digital trace data help us map patterns of engagement, collaboration, and self-regulation across platforms. We also explore how AI-mediated systems, from recommendation algorithms to conversational agents, shape social perception, trust, and behaviour in ways that are often subtle but deeply influential. By integrating qualitative perspectives with computational and quantitative modelling, we uncover the mechanisms that drive trust, miscommunication, and social understanding in cyberspace. Together, these approaches enable us to study digital life as a complex social ecosystem, generating insights that support more inclusive, ethical, and human-centred online environments

Group members

Dr Alexis Makin	Senior Lecturer	Alexis.Makin@liverpool.ac.uk
Dr Farah Akthar	Lecturer	Farah.Akthar@liverpool.ac.uk
Dr Emmanuel Biau	Lecturer	E.Biau@liverpool.ac.uk
Dr Carole Bode	Lecturer	Carole.Bode@liverpool.ac.uk
Dr Francesca Branzi	Lecturer	Francesca.Branzi@liverpool.ac.uk
Dr Nathan Evans	Senior Lecturer	Nathan.Evans@liverpool.ac.uk
Dr Cesare Parise	Senior Lecturer	Cesare.Parise@liverpool.ac.uk
Dr Raluca Petrican	Lecturer	Raluca.Petrican@liverpool.ac.uk
Dr Angelo Pirrone	Lecturer	A.Pirrone@liverpool.ac.uk
Dr Dan Roberts	Senior Lecturer	D.J.Roberts@liverpool.ac.uk
Dr Reshanne Reeder	Lecturer	reeder@liverpool.ac.uk
Dr Angelika Stefan	Lecturer	Angelika.Stefan@liverpool.ac.uk
Dr Dimitris Tsivilis	Senior Lecturer	Dimitris.Tsivilis@liverpool.ac.uk
Social Cognition in Cyberspace research group
Maria LImniou	Senior Lecturer	Maria.Limniou@liverpool.ac.uk
Micheal Batterley	Lecturer	Michael.Batterley@liverpool.ac.uk

Current PhD students

Emma Austin

Ned Buckley

Eszter Demirkan

Yi Hao

Elena Karakashevska

Matthew Kirkby

Micheal Newton

Wesley Nixon