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New papers in 2017!


Colás, I., Triviño, M., & Chica, A. B. Interference control modulations over conscious perception. Frontiers in Psychology. Consciousness Research. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00712.

Botta, F., Ródenas, E., & Chica, A. B. Target bottom-up strength determines the extent of attentional modulations on conscious perception. Experimental Brain Research, doi:10.1007/s00221-017-4954-z.

Herreros, L., Lambert, A.J., & Chica, A. B., Orienting of attention with and without cue awareness. Neuropsychologia, 99, 165-171. doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.03.011.


2016-2017

This year we welcome to the lab the following students


  1. -María Melcón is working on intracranial EEG analyses about attention and consciousness. It is a technique with un beatable spatial and temporal resolution.


  1. -Morteza Izadifar visits as an Erasmus student, collaborating in some of our research about interference control and consciousness.


  1. -Giuliana Marino visits as an Erasmus student, collaborating in a TMS project about the role of the parietal cortex in facilitation and IOR.


  1. -Alberto Gómez Moro is working in his Master project exploring the role of white matter in attentional deficits in brain damaged patients.


  1. -María Cobos is working in her Master project correlating electrocardiogram signals of healthy participants with cognitive processes. The aim is to explore the interactions between psychophysical and cognitive variables.


  1. -Diego Candela Salomón works as a practice student collaborating with some of our research about interference control and consciousness.


  1. -Raquel Selma is working in her graduate thesis collaborating in some of our experiments about the role of consciousness in voluntary and involuntary attention.



Phasic alerting improves conscious perception through the fronto-striatal network


Chica, A. B., Bayle, D.J., Botta, F., Bartolomeo, P., and Paz-Alonso, P.M. (2016) Interactions between phasic alerting and consciousness in the frontostriatal network. Scientific Reports. 6, 31868; doi: 10.1038/srep31868.



Financing and new incorporations to the group


This year, Mar Martín Signes got the FPU (grant to complete PhD studies). Congratulations Mar!


Also, Elisa Martín Arévalo and Fabiano Botta are coming back to Granada thanks to a Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral contract and a research project to young researchers, respectively. Congratulations to you both, we are very happy to have you back.



Tribute conference to Pío Tudela


This week we will have the pleasure to attend to a tribute conference to Pío Tudela. The three main speakers are Michel Posner, Silvia Bunge, and Avishai Henik.


http://menteycerebro-piotudela.weebly.com


Check out our new paper about Mind-Wandering


Fluctuating Minds: Spontaneous Psychophysical Variability during Mind-Wandering.


http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0147174


TMS lab


Our TMS lab has just been equipped with neuro-navigation and robotic systems.



Check out!!!




http://www.axilumrobotics.com/en/



Elisa’s new paper in Journal of Neuroscience


Elisa Martín-Arévalo just published an excellent paper about prism adaptation and attentional orienting.


http://www.jneurosci.org/content/36/3/1019.short



New paper


Check out our new review paper about the electrophysiological modulations of facilitation and IOR.


http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166432815303028



2015-2016

New students in the lab


  1. -Mar Martín Signes (PhD Student) is going to start a fMRI-TMS project exploring the neural networks underlying attention and consciousness.


  1. -Laura Herreros (Master student) is going to continue her work exploring attentional effects for conscious and unconscious stimuli, while exploring their neural correlates.


  1. -Antía Pérez Docampo (Master student) is going to continue her work about conscious perception on healthy aging and Parkinson disease.


  1. -Elvira Puga (Master student) is going to explore attentional deficits in mild cognitive impairment with computerized tests and daily life activities.


  1. -Carlos Pérez (Master student) is going to work on a TMS project exploring the neural networks underlying attention and consciousness.


  1. -María Cobos (Psychology student) is going to explore conscious perception on healthy aging.


  1. -M. Angeles Martín Prados (Psychology student) is going to study the effects of phasic and sustained alerting on conscious perception.


  1. -Miriam Rueda Tormo (Psychology student) will explore unconscious influences over conscious perception on implicit learning situations.


I hope you enjoy our research environment!



Rodrigo Henríquez PhD viva


  1. R.Henríquez is defending his PhD thesis: BEHAVIORAL AND NEURAL CORRELATES OF SPONTANEOUS ATTENTIONAL DECOUPLING: TOWARDS AN UNDERSTANDING OF MIND W ANDERING.


The defense will take place at the ICM, Salpetriere Hospital of Paris, the 9th November 2015 at 15h.



Reseach position offered in our group


A research contract is offered to work on research Project “Fronto-parietal contributions to conscious perception" (PSI2014-58681-P). Duration: 12 months.

 

Principal Investigator: Ana B. Chica (anachica@ugr.es)
University of Granada

 

Requirements: BA in Psychology, Biology, or Physics.

 

Activity to develop:

Designing and running experiments using fMRI and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Behavioral data analysis. Neuroimaging analysis, including functional and structural data.

 

Evaluation criteria:

Masters in neuroscience or Masters in neuroimaging acquisition and data analyses. Experience with TMS. Experience in neuroimaging data analysis (structural and functional).

 

Salary: 1200 euros/month.

 

The call will be published the 14th October at http://investigacion.ugr.es/pages/personal/contratos/*/4275



Dissemination paper


Itsaso Colás has written an interesting dissemination paper about anosognosia:


http://medina-psicologia.ugr.es/cienciacognitiva/?p=1084#more-1084



Research project


The Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness has financed our research project: Fronto-parietal contributions to conscious perception (PSI2014-58681-P).



Check out our new paper in Neuropsychologia


Inappropriate rightward saccades after right hemisphere damage: Oculomotor analysis and anatomical correlates


http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0028393215001591#



Success stories: ANIRC (National Association of Ramón y Cajal Researchers)


http://www.anirc.com/success_stories/attention-and-consciousness-university-of-granada/



Check out our new paper in Frontiers in Psychology


Endogenous attention modulates attentional and motor interference from distractors: Evidence from behavioral and electrophysiological results.


http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00132/abstract



2014-2015

New students in the lab


- Marino García (Master student) will explore unconscious influences over conscious perception on implicit learning situations.


  1. -Carmen Hinojosa (Psychology student) is going to explore conscious perception on patients suffering from refractory epilepsy.


  1. -Antía Pérez Docampo (Psychology student) is going to work on a project about conscious perception on healthy aging and Parkinson disease.


  1. -Cristina Marín García (Ocupational Therapy student) is going to work on a TMS project and revise some literature about the use of TMS for motor and cognitive rehabilitation.


  1. -Isidoro Amador (Psychology student) is going to work on a fMRI project about expectancy violation and consciousness.


  1. -Laura Herreros (Psychology student) is going to work in a behavioural series of experiments exploring attentional orienting to near-threshold cues and targets.


I hope you enjoy our research environment!



6th and 7th November 2014


I’ve been invited to talk at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM)


6th November: Faculty of Psychology.

7th November: Masters in Neuroscience, Faculty of Medicine.


Title of the talk: Neural basis of the interactions between attention and consciousness.


Only a small fraction of all the information reaching our senses can be the object of verbal report or voluntary action. The necessary and sufficient conditions for information to reach consciouness/reportability are still debated. In particular, the last decade has witnessed disagreement on several topics: 1) Is attention a necessary and sufficient condition for conscious perception? (Chica & Bartolomeo, 2012). 2) Is it possible to find the neural correlates of conscious perception? While some theoretical models suggest that consciousness depends on activity within brain regions supporting the perceptual analysis of the information being processed, other models propose that activity in fronto-parietal regions is crucial for conscious perception, independent of the sensory input (Dehaene & Changeux, 2011). In this talk, I will explore and discuss the interactions between different attentional subsystems (orienting, alerting, and executive control) and conscious perception, and will describe the putative role of prefrontal and parietal brain regions in conscious perception.


Come join us!!



17th October 2014


Inauguration of the Masters in Cognitive Neuroscience 2014-15


https://www.facebook.com/events/736282913074130/


Manuel Carreiras has given a nice talk entitled: “The literate brain”


Time for new experiences with a group of excellent students.



1st-4th October 2014


Sepex-SEPNECA conference. Murcia, Spain.


http://www.um.es/sepex-sepneca/index.php


CHECK OUT OUR TALK!!


SEPEX_ItsasoColas.pdf



18-19th September 2014


Inauguration of the Mind, Brain, and Behaviour Research Center.


http://jornadascimcyc.weebly.com/


CHECK OUT OUR POSTER!!


Consciousnnes_learning_control_POSTER.pdf

 

NEWS!!