Staff profile

Dr Robin Laycock

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Faculty of Science, Technology and Engineering

School of Psychological Science
Department of Psychology

Biological Sciences 2 Building, Room 122, Melbourne (Bundoora)

 

Qualifications

Bsc, PGDipAppPsych, PhD

Area of study

Psychology

Brief profile

Dr Laycock was awarded a BSc with a major in Pychology at the University of Melbourne in 2000, and a PhD from La Trobe University in 2008. His main research focus is on understanding the neural mechanisms underlying visual attention and object recognition. Investigations of parallel visual pathways in human by use of psychophysics techniques and by application of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to briefly disrupt neural networks are being used to better understand how in healthy individuals such an automatic and rapid perception of the visual world is achieved. Electrophysiological and functional brain imaging (fMRI) techniques are also important tools for understanding the spatial and temporal profile of visual and visual attentional networks involved.

In particular, Dr Laycock has focused on understanding the contribution of magnocellular and parvocellular pathway processing, and of their contribution to the dorsal and ventral streams. More recent research is strongly indicating that rapid activation of global attention mechanisms in parietal and frontal regions are required to guide detailed object perception in ventral stream regions through to temporal cortex. TMS is a particularly exciting tool when used in conjunction with other cognitive neuroscience methodologies, as it provides causal information about the involvement of cortical regions in a given cognitive task. Dr Laycock has also looked at the visual impairments observed in developmental disorders such as dyslexia and autism spectrum disorders, and more recently in psychiatric disorders such as schizphrenia.

Research interests

Cognitive and developmental psychology

- cognitive and visual neuroscience

- Visual processing in children, adults and in neurodevelopmental disorders

Neuroscience and neuropsychology

- Please contact me to discuss a topic.

Recent publications

  1. Laycock, R., Crewther, D.P., Crewther, S.G. (2012). Abrupt and ramped flicker-defined form shows evidence for a large magnocellular impairment in dyslexia. Neuropsychologia. 50(8), 2107-2113
  2. Laycock, R., Cross, A.J., Lourenco, T., Crewther, S.G. (2011). Dorsal stream involvement in recognition of objects with transient onset but not ramped onset. Behavioral and Brain Functions, 7, 34.
  3. Upton, D.J., Cooper, N.R., Laycock, R., Croft, R.J., & Fitzgerald, P.B. (2010). A combined rTMS and ERP investigation of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex involvement in response inhibition. (2010). Clinical Electroencephalography and Neuroscience, 41(3), 127-131.
  4. Laycock, R., Crewther, D.P., Fitzgerald, P., Crewther, S.G. (2009). TMS disruption of V5/MT+ indicates a role for the dorsal stream in word recognition. Experimental Brain Research, 197(1), 69-79.
  5. Laycock, R., Crewther, S.G. (2008). Towards an understanding of the role of the ‘magnocellular advantage’ in fluent reading. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 32(8), 1494-1506.
  6. Laycock, R., Crewther, S.G., Crewther, D.P. (2008). The advantage in being magnocellular: A few more remarks on attention and the magnocellular system. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 32(8), 363-373.
  7. Hoy, K., Georgiou-Karistianis, N., Laycock, R. & Fitzgerald, PB. (2008). A Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation study of Transcallosal Inhibition and Facilitation in Schizophrenia.  Journal of Clinical Neuroscience, 15(8), 863-867.
  8. Laycock, R., Crewther, D.P., Fitzgerald, P., Crewther, S.G. (2007). Evidence for fast signals and later processing in human V1/V2 and V5/MT+. Journal of Neurophysiology, 98(3), 1253-1262.
  9. Laycock, R., Crewther, S.G., Crewther, D.P. (2007).  A role for the ‘magnocellular advantage’ in visual impairments in neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 31(3), 363-373.
  10. Fitzgerald, P.B., Fountain, S., Hoy, K., Maller, J., Enticott, P., Laycock., R., Upton, D., Daskalakis, Z.J. (2007). A comparative study of the effects of repetitive paired transcranial magnetic stimulation on motor cortical excitability. Journal of Neuroscience Methods. 135(2), 265-269.
  11. Hoy, K.E., Georgiou-Karistianis, N., Laycock, R., Fitzgerald, P.B. (2007). Using transcranial magnetic stimulation to investigate the cortical origins of motor overflow: a study in schizophrenia and healthy controls. Psychological Medicine. 37(4): 583-594.
  12. Laycock, R., Crewther, S.G., Kiely, P.M., Crewther, D.P. (2006). Parietal function in good and poor readers. Behavioral and Brain Functions, 2, 26.
  13. Cotton, S.M., Kiely, P.M., Crewther, D.P., Thomson, B., Laycock, R., Crewther, S.G. (2005). A normative and reliability study for the Raven’s Coloured Progressive Matrices for primary school aged children from Victoria, Australia. Personality and Individual differences, 39, 647-659.