About Us

The Cognitive Research Group is a collection of researchers at the University of Lincoln, who undertake research on a broad range of issues, including:

  • Inferential processes in vision
  • Face Perception
  • The functions of the frontal cortex
  • Control of human eye movements
  • Visual motion processing
  • Perception of visual art
  • Visual attention in social cognition
  • 3-D vision and action
  • Emotion and memory
  • Multisensory Perception
  • Neural Plasticity
  • The role of sleep in memory
  • Visual processing in dyslexic, autistic and neurological populations

Facilities

We have extensive internal and external collaborations with researchers in social psychology, forensic psychology, neuroscience, animal science, computer science and media studies. We have successfully attracted external funding from Leverhulme Trust, EPSRC, ESRC, Nuffield Foundation, Royal Society, Home Office and NHS. The Cognitive Research Group has several dedicated laboratories and a range of state-of-art specialised equipment.

Psychophysics labs

The psychophysics labs are equipped with:

  • Two Cambridge Research Systems (CRS) ViSaGe visual stimulators
  • A CRS Bits# system
  • A ViewPixx Lite/3D system
  • Devices for light measurement and display calibration, such as a Jeti spectroradiometer and Minolta photometer

Eye Tracker Labs

The eye tracker labs house a number of eye movement monitoring and recording systems, including:

  • Tobii 2 and Positive Science head-mounted portable eye trackers
  • An Eyelink 1000 eye tracker
  • A Fourward Technologies Generation 5.5 Dual Purkinje Image eye-tracker plus control system
  • A CRS High-Speed Video Eyetracker Toolbox
  • An Eye Tribe tracker

EEG & TMS Labs

The EEG and TMS labs are equipped with:

  • A 64-channel ActiveTwo EEG set-up with BrainVision Analyzer
  • a Medtronic MagPro X100 high-performance magnetic stimulator that is used in conjunction with a Zebris guidance system
  • Dantec Neuro MS/D Magnetic stimulator

Psychobiology Lab

The Psychobiology lab is fully equipped for conducting biological sample processing such as human saliva and blood for the purpose of extracting DNA or separating serum and plasma. The lab has the capacity to store human samples considered non-relevant according to the Human Tissue Authority (e.g. DNA; hair; serum) at -80°C, -20°C or 5°C long or short term and to temporarily store relevant human tissue for less than 7 days before transportation for processing and analysis elsewhere. Enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) are used to quantitively measure small molecules such as cortisol and brain derived neurotrophic factor. In addition to general equipment needed for general molecular biology laboratory work the specialist equipment housed in the laboratory are a ThermoScientific Heraeus Megafuge SR Centrifuge with inserts for blood and saliva specific tubes and a ThermoScientific Multiskan FC Microplate Reader with the capacity to read at three different wavelengths along with the ThermoScientific SkanIt PC software for analysis.

Psychophysiological Recording Lab

The psychophysiological recording lab houses BIOPAC equipment for the measurement of skin conductance and heart rate.

Ultrasonography Lab

The functional Transcranial Doppler (fTCD) ultrasonography lab houses the DWL Doppler-Box TM X system, complete with Doppler M-Mode recording and bi-lateral insonation capabilities for neuroimaging the cerebral vascular system in real-time during cognitive tasks.

Sleep and Cognition Laboratory

The Sleep and Cognition Laboratory is a custom-built two-bedroom facility for carrying out sleep research. Each bedroom is fully equipped with an Embla N7000 polysomnography system to monitor sleep, fully controllable lighting and temperature, ceiling speakers, infrared cameras, microphones, headphone and USB sockets connected to the control room and sound-proofed to SR25 level. The larger bedroom is wheelchair-friendly and also equipped with g.tec EEG system for real-time signal processing and auditory-closed loop stimulation. The lab has a separate control room with a two PCs connected to each bedroom respectively, and an en-suite wet room to provide shower and WC facilities. Additional facilities in the lab include three ASM Sleep Monitors for ambulatory polysomnography and a number of Philips Actiwatch 2 and Actigraph wGT3X devices for actigraphy, as well as two PCs equipped with RemLogic software for polysomnography, Actiware and Actilife software for actigraphy and SuperLab 5, MATLAB 2020a and E-Prime 2 software for cognitive testing.

Functional near-infrared system (fNIR System)

The School has an fNIR system (Biopac high density fNIR303S; https://www.biopac.com/product/fnir-systems-2000s/#product-tabs). fNIR is an optical imaging technology which measures the neural activity and hemodynamic response in the brain. The imager 2000S provides up to 54 channels of information for continous NIR spectroscopy (NIRS). Systems includes an Imager 2000S control unit, sensors and software for real-time data viewing and post-acquisition analysis.

Body Scanner

The School has a 3DMD full body scanner.

General / Mobile

The School has a mirror stereoscope for stereovision experiments etc (e.g. disparity, motion in depth, binocular rivalry, continuous flash suppression).