Understanding the brain mechanisms by which our mental events are transformed into goal-directed action remains one of the most significant and exciting challenges facing modern neuroscience. This transformation allows us the ability to interact with other individuals and objects in our surrounding environment, travel from point A to point B (walking, running, driving) and, through the hands of the most gifted artists and musicians, the capacity to fascinate and captivate the world. Thus, elucidating the cognitive underpinnings and neural circuits that drive our complex, goal-oriented behaviours is an important endeavour.

Our lab uses a combination of techniques including behavioural measurements, functional brain imaging and neurostimulation to explore the human cognitive and neural bases of a variety of processes (e.g., decision-making, working memory, perception and learning) that underlie the control of action. The results of our research will have applications in the study of injury and disease states that affect the mind and body.

Neural representation of geometry and surface properties in object and scene perception

Lowe, M.X., Rasjic, J., Gallivan, J.P., Ferber, S. & Cant, J.S.

Neuroimage

Rapid automatic motor encoding of competing reach options

Gallivan, J.P., Stewart, B., Baugh, L., Wolpert, D.M. & Flanagan, J.R.

Cell Reports

Functional coupling between frontoparietal and occipitotemporal pathways during action and perception

Hutchison, R.M. & Gallivan, J.P.

Cortex

Parallel specification of competing sensorimotor control policies for alternative action options

Gallivan, J.P., Logan, L., Wolpert, D.M. & Flanagan, J.R.

Nature Neuroscience

Planning ahead: Object-directed sequential actions decoded from human frontoparietal and occipitotemporal networks

Gallivan, J.P., Johnsrude, I.S. & Flanagan, J.R.

Cerebral Cortex