I am a Professor in the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health. I completed my BSc in Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Manchester in June 1998. I carried out my PhD (‘Tactile Spatial Attention and Parkinson’s Disease’ supervised by Dr Don O’Boyle and Dr Fred Cody) at the University of Manchester, which I completed in 2002. I then worked for 18 months as a Postdoctoral Research Associate with Professor Graham Barnes at UMIST, before taking up a lectureship in Psychology September 2003. I was promoted to senior lecturer in 2010 and together with Dr Emma Gowen, I direct the Body, Eye and Movement (BEAM) lab. https://blogs.manchester.ac.uk/beamlab/

I am interested in the overlap between cognition and motor processes; in particular how we copy (imitation) and simulate (motor imagery) actions. I have been exploring how these processes are affected in Parkinson’s disease and autism. I am also interested in the processing of tactile and bodily information, and how these may be affected in different conditions. I am co-director of the BEAM (Body Eyes and Movement) lab with Dr Emma Gowen http://beamlab.lab.ls.manchester.ac.uk/

Our research uses a range of measures (reaction times, eye movements, hand movements). I am committed to involving people affected by Parkinson’s and autism in developing our research questions and approaches, and explore how our findings can be translated into interventions or real-word application.

Undergraduate

PSYC10770 Study Skills in Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology (module leader)

PSYC11312 Sensation & Perception

PSYC21012 Perception and Action

PSYC31161 Cases in Clinical Neuropsychology (module leader)

PSYC31242 Understanding Dementia: Brain and Behaviour

NURS13110 Life sciences for midwives

BIOL21341 Sensory Systems

Masters

BIOL63151 Contemporary Research Skills (MRes)

PSYC69841 Professional Issues (MSc)

BIOL62112 Cognitive Psychology for Clinical Neurosciences (MSc)

BIOL63122 Research Methods in Experimental Psychology (MRes)

BIOL62172 Clinical and Behavioural Neuroscience (MSc)

Collaborators

• Dr Emma Gowen
• Dr Richard Brown
• Dr Donna Lloyd

I am Director of Social Responsibility for the Division of Neuroscience and Experimental Psychology. I take the lead on organising Widening Participation activities for school children, as well as activities for the wider public. I have recently devised Science-Art workshops in partnership with the Whitworth Art Gallery. I am currently a committee member of the British Science Association Psychology Section.

I use patient and public involvement (PPI) in my own research and teaching and have recently co-authored a paper with two people with Parkinson’s disease. I am also a member of the Parkinson’s UK Involvement Strategy Group, working to facilitate PPI for researchers across the UK.