Justin O’Brien
Lecturer
Psychology
Brunel University
Uxbridge, UB8 3PH
United Kingdom
Biography
Qualifications
- PhD Psychology (UCL)
- BA Psychology (Exeter)
Personal Biography
I completed my PhD on the topic of depth perception as part of a BAe Case award at University College London in 1997. Subsequently I worked on functional neuroimaging projects for the MRC’s Visual Development Unit at UCL, studying visual perception in developmental disorders before moving to Brunel in 2002.
Research
Research Overview
My research is usually described as developmental visual neuroscience, but includes work as co-director of CRIB (the Centre for Research in Infant Behaviour) where we investigate normal and abnormal visual development, including motion perception and the susceptibility to visual illusions (as shown in BBC Horizon in 2010). Work on adult neuroimaging projects (as part of the CCNI) includes functional and structural imaging research.
Director, Centre for Research in Infant Behaviour
Member, Centre for Cognition & Neuroimaging
Current Projects
The Hollow face illusion in infants
The perception of biological motion in autism
Temporal components of visual attention in the perception of facial configurations
PhD Supervision
Christine Girges: EEG analysis of motion perception in autism; 2012 - 2015
Teaching
Undergraduate Programmes
Module convenor
- Psychology Work Placement
Module contributor
- Statistics
Postgraduate Programmes
Module convenor
- Practical Neuroimaging
- Neuroimaging Dissertation
Administration
- Psychology Work Placements Co-ordinator
- Ethics Committee
External Activity
- Chartered Member, British Psychological Society
Publications
Publications
Journal Papers
(2012) Tsermentseli, S., O'Brien, J. and Spencer, JV., A preliminary comparison of volumetric changes between dyslexia and Asperger syndrome, The Hellenic Journal of Psychology 9 102- 113
(2009) O'Brien, J., Tsermentseli, S., Cummins, O., Happé, F., Heaton, P. and Spencer, J., Discriminating children with autism from children with learning difficulties with an adaptation of the short sensory profile, Early Child Development and Care 179 (4) : 383- 394
(2008) Tsermentseli, S., O'Brien, JM. and Spencer, JV., Comparison of form and motion coherence processing in autistic spectrum disorders and dyslexia, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 38 (7) : 1201- 1210
(2007) Benton, CP., O'Brien, JMD. and Curran, W., Fractal rotation isolates mechanisms for form-dependent motion in human vision, Biology Letters 3 (3) : 306- 308
(2006) SPENCER., Hill, Harold., Johnston, Alan. and O'Brien, Justin M. D.., Infants' discrimination of faces by using biological motion cues, Perception 35 (1) : 79- 89
(2006) Spencer, JV. and O'Brien, JM., Visual form-processing deficits in autism., Perception 35 (8) : 1047- 1055
(2005) O'Brien, JM., Spencer, JV. and Tsermentseli, S., Form and motion processing in dyslexia, Journal of Vision 5 (8) : 850
(2005) Spencer, JV. and O'Brien, JM., Imaging visual deficits in autistic spectrum disorder, Journal of Vision 5 (8) : 288
(2003) Braddick, O., O'Brien, J., Rees, G., Wattam-Bell, J., Atkinson, J. and Turner, R., Linear and non-linear responses to form coherence in extra-striate cortical areas, Journal of Vision 3 (9)
(2002) O'Brien, J., Spencer, J., Atkinson, J., Braddick, O. and Wattam-Bell, J., Form and motion coherence processing in dyspraxia: Evidence of a global spatial processing deficit, Neuroreport 13 (11) : 1399- 1402
(2001) Braddick, OJ., O'Brien, JM., Wattam-Bell, J., Atkinson, J., Hartley, T. and Turner, R., Brain areas sensitive to coherent visual motion, Perception 30 (1) : 61- 72
(2000) Spencer, J., O'Brien, J., Riggs, K., Braddick, O., Atkinson, A. and Wattam-Bell, J., Motion processing in autism: evidence for a dorsal stream deficiency, NeuroReport 11 (12) : 2765- 2767
(2000) Braddick, OJ., O'Brien, JM., Wattam-Bell, J., Atkinson, J. and Turner, R., Form and motion coherence activate independent, but not dorsal/ventral segregated, networks in the human brain, Current Biology 10 (12) : 731- 734
(2000) O'Brien, J. and Johnston, A., When texture takes precedence over motion in depth perception, Perception 29 (4) : 437- 452
Conference Papers
(2011) Spencer, JV., O'Brien, J., Heard, P. and Gregory, RL., Do Infants See The Hollow Face Illusion?, European Conference on Visual Perception, Perception (40) : 204- 204
(2005) Tsermentseli, S., Spencer, JV. and O'Brien, JM., Form and motion processing in dyslexia and Asperger syndrome, 28th European Conference on Visual Perception, Perception (34) : 70- 70
(2004) Braddick, OJ., Atkinson, J., Wattam-Bell, J., Aspell, J. and O'Brien, J., Brain systems processing global form and motion, 27th European Conference on Visual Perception, Perception (33) : 21- 21
(2004) O'Brien, J. and Spencer, J., Perceptual deficits in autism and Asperger syndrome: Form and motion processing, 27th European Conference on Visual Perception, Perception (33) : 28- 28
(2002) Braddick, OJ., O'Brien, J., Rees, G., Wattam-Bell, J., Atkinson, J. and Turner, R., Quantitative neural responses to form coherence in human extrastriate cortex, 32nd Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience
(2001) Braddick, OJ., O'Brien, J., Wattam-Bell, J., Atkinson, J. and Hutton, C., Sensitivity to global form coherence lies outside retinotopically ordered brain areas, 24th European Conference on Visual Perception, Perception (30) : 70- 71
(2000) Spencer, J., O'Brien, J., Braddick, J., Atkinson, O., Wattam-Bell, J. and Riggs, K., Form and motion processing in autism, 23rd European Conference on Visual Perception, Perception (29) : 98- 99
(2000) O'Brien, JMD. and Johnston, A., Texture and motion in depth perception, 23rd European Conference on Visual Perception, Perception (29) : 3- 3
(1998) O'Brien, JMD., Braddick, OJ., Hartley, T., Atkinson, J., Wattam-Bell, J. and Turner, R., Areas within and beyond the visual cortex differentially activated by coherent visual motion and dynamic noise, 21st European Conference on Visual Perception (ECVP 1998), Perception (27) : S2- S2
(1998) Braddick, OJ., Hartley, T., O'Brien, J., Atkinson, J., Wattam-Bell, J. and Turner, R., Brain areas differentially activated by coherent visual motion and dynamic noise, 4th International Conference on Functional Mapping of the Human Brain, NeuroImage (7) : S322-
(1997) O'Brien, JMD. and Johnston, A., Texture takes precedence over motion in slant perception, Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology: 1997 Annual Meeting, Investigative Opthalmology and Visual Science (38) : 4233- 4233
(2006) Shaw, L., Wright, M. and O'Brien, J., Attention effect of high and low valence visual stimuli: an fMRI analysis, , JOURNAL OF PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY (20) : 332- 332 Download publication
(2006) Ruparelia, K., O'Brien, JMD., Spencer, JV., Hill, HCH. and Johnston, A., Biological motion and face perception in autistic spectrum disorder, , PERCEPTION (35) : 137- 137 Download publication
(2006) Tsermentseli, S., O'Brien, JMD. and Spencer, JV., Imaging processing of form and motion coherence in Asperger syndrome, , PERCEPTION (35) : 131- 132 Download publication
(2005) Benton, CP. and O'Brien, JMD., Fractal rotation stimulus activates human MT/V5, , Journal of Vision (5)
(2005) Spencer, JV., O'Brien, JMD., Hill, HCH. and Johnston, A., Do infants use a generalised motion processing system for discriminating facial motion?, , PERCEPTION (34) : 171- 171 Download publication
(2005) O'Brien, JM. and Spencer, JV., Motion processing in dyslexia and Asperger syndrome: an fMRI study, , PERCEPTION (34) : 68- 68 Download publication
(2004) Spencer, J., O'Brien, J., Johnston, A. and Hill, H., Infants' discrimination of facial motion, , PERCEPTION (33) : 56- 56 Download publication
(2000) Spencer, J., O'Brien, J., Braddick, J., Atkinson, O., Wattam-Bell, J. and Riggs, K., Form and motion processing in autism, , PERCEPTION (29) : 98- 99
(2000) O'Brien, JMD. and Johnston, A., Texture and motion in depth perception, , PERCEPTION (29) : 3- 3
(1999) Braddick, OJ., O'Brien, J., Wattam-Bell, J., Atkinson, J. and Turner, R., fMRI study of human brain areas activated by form coherence: Dorsal or ventral function?, , INVESTIGATIVE OPHTHALMOLOGY & VISUAL SCIENCE (40) : S2- S2
(1999) Braddick, OJ., Lin, MH., Atkinson, J., O'Brien, J., Wattam-Bell, J. and Turner, R., Form coherence: a measure of extrastriate pattern processing, , PERCEPTION (28) : 59- 59
(1998) O'Brien, JMD., Braddick, OJ., Hartley, T., Atkinson, J., Wattam-Bell, J. and Turner, R., Areas within and beyond the visual cortex differentially activated by coherent visual motion and dynamic noise, , PERCEPTION (27) : 2- 2
