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Professor Fiona Newell

Professor of Experimental Psychology (Psychology)
Professor of Experimental Psychology (Trinity Inst. of Neurosciences (TCIN))
 (3531896) 8402
      
Profile Photo

Professor Fiona Newell

Professor of Experimental Psychology (Psychology)

 Fiona.Newell@tcd.ie

 3531896

Professor of Experimental Psychology (Trinity Inst. of Neurosciences (TCIN))

 (3531896) 8402


My main research objective is to elucidate the cortical and behavioural processes involved in high-level human perception across the main sensory systems. This interest is motivated by the fact that perception is not a fixed concept since it is significantly modulated by information from other senses and other contextual factors such as past experience, internal predictions, on-going motor behaviour and the working range of the sensory system. Furthermore, Perception is the basis of Cognition, and an understanding of the mechanisms behind how we perceive provides a better route to understanding other high-level human functions. To date, my team and I have begun to shed light on some of the behavioural principles of how the senses interact with one another to form a unified perception of our world. The current challenge is to provide a better understanding of the cortical and genetic mechanisms behind these principles. To this end my team are conducting a series of studies investigating cortical correlates of multisensory perception using neuroimaging (i.e. fMRI and EEG) technology and, in collaboration with colleagues the Smurfit Institute of Genetics at TCD we are investating behavioural and neural correlates of synaesthesia. Lately, I have begun to develop my research towards a better understanding of multisensory processing in the normal, damaged and ageing brain through collaborations with colleagues in the School of Medicine, TCD. Finally, in collaboration with colleagues in Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering, we are currently investigating how virtual displays of crowd scenes can be improved by multisensory stimulation.
  BRAIN AGEING   BRAIN-FUNCTION   FACE PERCEPTION   FACIAL ATTRACTIVENESS   MULTISENSORY PERCECEPTION   OBJECT RECOGNITION   SPATIAL COGNITION   SYNAESTHESIA   Virtual Reality   VISION, AUDITION, SOMATOSENSATION
Project Title
 weDraw
From
1 Jan., 2017
To
31 Dec, 2018
Summary
The weDRAW project comes from the renewed neuroscientific understanding of the role of communication between sensory modalities during development: specific sensory systems have specific roles to learn specific concepts. Starting from these results, in weDRAW we will develop an multisensory technology and three serious games that will exploit the best modality for learning arithmetic and geometrical concepts. In particular weDRAW: - will provide the elements to the teacher to determine which is the best modality (visual, audio or haptic) to teach each specific concepts to the students; - will provide the technology to exploit the best sensory signal; - will permit to teach different concepts together. This will be possible by using a multisensory approach, that will open a new teaching/learning channel, personalized for each student, based on multisensory interactive technology (i.e., audio, tactile, motor and visual), including a serious game platform. - will show that it is possible to learn arithmetical concepts from multisensory rhythm exploration and music and geometrical concepts from body movement and multisensory drawing. - will permit a "deeper learning of Science and Mathematics combined with Arts" improving creative capacities of learners. Besides application to typical children, a major goal and output of this project consists of applying the proposed multisensory approach and technologies to two specific populations: visually impaired and dyslexic children. In particular, dyslexic children have problems with rhythm, whereas visually impaired children have problems with space and geometry. With weDRAW we expect to improve the spatial and temporal impairments of these two groups of children braking down social barriers.
Funding Agency
European Commission; Research and Innovation Action
Programme
ICT No. 732391
Project Type
Technologies for Learning and Skills
Person Months
24
Project Title
 CityQuest: a serious game to enhance cognition and improve balance control
From
1 jan 2016
To
31 mar 2017
Summary
The aim of the proposal is to develop a prototype game, CityQuest, designed to improve balance control and spatial cognition in older adults. The game will target a growing health issue in the older population, namely the risk of falls and cognitive decline, with estimates that 30% of the older population are affected. The prototype game will be tested for potential commercialisation as a downloadable video-game or app, which is interfaced with the latest VR technology such as Oculus Rift, that can be accessed by health professionals in the clinic or older adults and their families at home.
Funding Agency
Science Foundation Ireland
Programme
Technology Innovation Development Award
Project Type
R&D
Person Months
18
Project Title
 Socialising Agents: endowing virtual agents with multisensory social skills to increase appeal and user engagement
From
July, 2011
To
June, 2015
Summary
There is an increasing demand for more realism in virtual characters, particularly with virtual agents in games designed to interact with the user and in entertainment designed to evoke intense emotions. However, computer graphics experts have little understanding of what underlies our preferences for certain perceptual features over others (such as facial expressions, voice intonations or bodily gestures). In a novel inter-disciplinary project combining computer graphics and social cognitive neuroscience, we will apply principles of human perceptual processing to endow virtual agents with maximum social appeal.
Funding Agency
Science Foundation Ireland
Programme
PI
Person Months
192
Project Title
 VERVE
From
2011
To
2014
Summary
VERVE is a research project that aims to develop new technologies to support the treatment of people who are at risk of social exclusion, either because of fear and apathy associated with ageing, or because of a neurological disorder.
Funding Agency
EU
Programme
FP7
Project Type
Integrated Project
Person Months
72
Project Title
 The development of a novel, low-cost intervention games system designed to improve physical and mental well being in older adults
From
March, 2011
To
October, 2011
Summary
Barriers to healthy ageing include declines in both physical (e.g. postural control) and mental processes (e.g. cognitive decline). As these processes are interconnected one of the main objectives of this project is to develop intervention programmes that train the body and the brain at the same time and are adapted to the needs of older adults. In this collaborative project between QUB and TCD we will create games that profile balance control (QUB expertise), dual tasking, selective attention and sensory integration (TCD expertise). The objective is to create a holistic approach that will result in a new, fun and engaging way for older adults to master new gaming based skills that will improve physical and mental well being.
Funding Agency
CARDI: Centre for ageing research and development in Ireland
Programme
Research Project
Project Type
Collaborative
Person Months
7

Page 1 of 2
Details Date From Date To
Member of IEEE Robotics Jan 2008
Experimental Psychological Society, UK 2000
Psychonomics Society, USA 2000
British Neuroscience Association 1999
European Society for Cognitive Psychology 2002
Holmes, C.A. and Cooney, S.M. and Dempsey, P. and Newell, F.N., Developmental changes in the visual, haptic, and bimodal perception of geometric angles, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 241, (105870), 2024, Notes: [cited By 0], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
O'Dowd, A. and Hirst, R.J. and Setti, A. and Kenny, R.A. and Newell, F.N., Is a Sex Difference in AudioVisual Temporal Precision Consistent Across Age Groups? An Update on Hernandez et al. (2019), Psychology and Aging, 2024, Notes: [cited By 0], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
O'Dowd A., O'Connor D.M.A., Hirst R.J., Setti A., Kenny R.A., Newell F.N., Nutrition is associated with differences in multisensory integration in healthy older adults, Nutritional Neuroscience, 2024, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  TARA - Full Text  DOI
O'Dowd A., Hirst R.J., Setti A., Kenny R.A., Newell F.N., Individual differences in seated resting heart rate are associated with multisensory perceptual function in older adults, Psychophysiology, 61, (1), 2024, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
O†Dowd, A. and Hirst, R.J. and Seveso, M.A. and McKenna, E.M. and Newell, F.N., Generalisation to novel exemplars of learned shape categories based on visual and auditory spatial cues does not benefit from multisensory information, Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 2024, Notes: [cited By 0], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Setti A, and Hernandez B, and Hirst R.J., Donoghue OA, Kenny R.A., and Newell F.N., Susceptibility to the sound-induced flash illusion is associated with gait speed in a large sample of middle-aged and older adults, Experimental Gerontology, 174, (112113), 2023, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Azizi Z, Hirst RJ, O' Dowd A, McCrory C, Kenny RA, Newell FN, Setti A., Evidence for an association between allostatic load and multisensory integration in middle-aged and older adults., Archives of gerontology and geriatrics, 116, 2023, p105155 , Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
O'Dowd A., Hirst R.J., Setti A., Donoghue O.A., Kenny R.A., Newell F.N., The temporal precision of audiovisual integration is associated with longitudinal fall incidents but not sensorimotor fall risk in older adults, Scientific Reports, 13, (1), 2023, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Ziat, M. and Pacic, K. and Buentello, I. and Varney, J. and Newell, F.N., Tactile perception of randomness: Effect of varying stimulus size and participants age, i-Perception, 14, (6), 2023, Notes: [cited By 1], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Azizi Z., Hirst R.J., Newell F.N., Kenny R.A., Setti A., Audio-visual integration is more precise in older adults with a high level of long-term physical activity, PLoS ONE, 18, (10 October), 2023, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
  

Page 1 of 14
McHugh, J.E., McDonnell, R., Chan, J.S. & Newell, F.N., The Multisensory Perception of Emotions in Real and Virtual Humans, British Psychological Society Annual Conference 2008, Dublin, April 2008, 2008, Poster, PRESENTED

  


Award Date
Best Reported Impact, Science Foundation Ireland 13 November, 2017
Fulbright Scholar 2011-12
Fellow, Trinity College Dublin 2005
'Addison Wheeler' Research Fellow in Life Sciences, University of Durham 1995-1999
Multisensory perception; Synaesthesia; Object recognition; Scene recognition; Face perception and facial attractiveness; Perception in visual impaired individuals; Dynamic object recognition; Visual, haptic and auditory perception; Perception of crowds; Perception of emotion; Ageing and multisensory perception.