Noam Sagiv
Lecturer in Psychology
Psychology
Brunel University
Uxbridge, UB8 3PH
United Kingdom
Biography
Qualifications
- PhD Psychology (Univ of California, Berkeley)
- MSc Neurobiology (Jerusalem)
- BSc Physics and Chemistry (Jerusalem)
Personal Biography
Since my undergraduate studies, my interests have gradually shifted from physics and chemistry to neurobiology, cognitive neuroscience and psychology. After completing my PhD studies in Cognitive Psychology at the University of Califronia, I spent two years at University College London as a post-doctoral research fellow. I joined Brunel in 2005.
Research
Research Overview
My research interests concern the cogntive and neural bases of human perception and consciousness. Specific research interests include cross-modal interactions and synaesthesia (a condition in which stimulation in one sensory modality is accompanied by experiences in additional, unstimulated senses). I am also interested in face perception and its disorders. Particularly, (1) Prosopagnosia – a condition in which individuals cannot recognise faces and may occasionally fail to recognise even close friends and realtives; (2) Prosopometamorphopsia – a condition in which faces appear distorted while other objects are not. The interest in such extraordinary perceptual symptoms and syndromes is also related to my interest in the neural correlates of consciousness (particularly, perceptual awareness).
Current Projects
Mind Science Foundation
Conscious and unconscious olfactory processing in the human brain
$15,000
August 2011 – July 2012
Noam Sagiv (PI)
The Attribution of Animacy and Agency to Inanimate Things in Synaesthesia
September 2009 –
Noam Sagiv (PI)
PhD Supervision
Alireza Ilbeigi: Interactions of vision and taste; Investigation of mirror taste synaesthesia; October 2008 -
Monika Sobczak-Edmans: Encoding and representation of mental states based on attribution of animacy and agency to inanimate objects; October 2009 –
Lucille Lecoutre: Visiting student from the École normale supérieure in Paris, with support from the Mind Science Foundation; Feb 2012 – July 2012
Teaching
Undergraduate Programmes
Module convenor
- Cognitive Neuroscience of Consciousness (Year 3)
Module contributor
- Psychology Dissertations (Year 3)
- Quantitative Research Methods (Year 2)
Postgraduate Programmes
Module convenor
- Graduate Research Skills
Module contributor
- Visual Neuroscience
Administration
- Director of School Research Programmes
External Activity
- Professional Memberships: Association for Psychological Science, Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness (lifetime member), International Neuroethics Society, UK Synaesthesia Association
- External PhD Examiner: University Of Sydney, University College London, University of East London
- Ad Hoc Reviewer for Funding Agencies: National Science Foundation (NSF), European Science Foundation (ESF), Israel Science Foundation (ISF)
- Ad Hoc Reviewer for Journals: Brain, Cerebral Cortex, Cognition, Cognitive Brain Research, Cognitive Neuropsychology, Cognitive Science, Consciousness and Cognition, Cortex, Current Biology, Frontiers in Neuroscience, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, JEP: HPP, Journal of Neural Transmission, Journal of Neuropsychology, Mind-Body Regulation, Neuropsychologia, Neuroscience, Perception, Proceedings of the Royal Society, PNAS, Psychological Science, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, Psychophysiology, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, Trends in Cognitive Neurosciences
- Other Professional Services: Chair, Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness Membership Committee 2008. Committee member 2006 - 2009
Publications
Publications
Journal Papers
(2011) Amin, M., Olu-Lafe, O., Claessen, LE., Sobczak-Edmans, M., Ward, J., Williams, AL. and Sagiv, N., Understanding grapheme personification: A social synaesthesia?, Journal of Neuropsychology 5 (2) : 255- 282 Download publication
(2011) Sagiv, N., Ilbeigi, A. and Ben-Tal, O., Reflections on Synaesthesia, Perception, and Cognition, Intellectica 55 (1) : 81- 94
(2009) Ward, J., Sagiv, N. and Butterworth, B., The impact of visuo-spatial number forms on simple arithmetic, Cortex 45 (10) : 1261- 1265
(2007) Ward, J. and Sagiv, N., Synaesthesia for finger counting and dice patterns: a case of higher synaesthesia?, Neurocase 13 (2) : 86- 93 Download publication
(2007) Ward, J., Li, R., Salih, S. and Sagiv, N., Varieties of grapheme-colour synaesthesia: A new theory of phenomenological and behavioural differences, Consciousness and Cognition 16 913- 931
(2006) Sagiv, N., Heer, J. and Robertson, L., Does binding of synesthetic color to the evoking grapheme require attention?, Cortex 42 (2) : 232- 242 Download publication
(2006) Sagiv, N. and Ward, J., Chapter 15 Crossmodal interactions: lessons from synesthesia, Progress in Brain Research 155 B 259- 271
(2006) Simner, J., Mulvenna, C., Sagiv, N., Tsakanikos, E., Witherby, SA., Fraser, C., Scott, K. and Ward, J., Synaesthesia: The prevalence of atypical cross-modal experiences, PERCEPTION 35 (8) : 1024- 1033
(2006) Le Grand, R., Cooper, PA., Mondloch, CJ., Lewis, TL., Sagiv, N., de Gelder, B. and Maurer, D., What aspects of face processing are impaired in developmental prosopagnosia?, BRAIN AND COGNITION 61 (2) : 139- 158
(2006) SAGIV., Butterworth, Brian., Collins, James. and Simmer, Julia., What is the relationship between synaesthesia and visuo-spatial number forms?, Cognition 101 (1) : 114- 128
(2005) Cohen Kadosh, R., Sagiv, N., Linden, DE., Robertson, LC., Elinger, G. and Henik, A., When blue is larger than red: colors influence numerical cognition in synesthesia., J Cogn Neurosci 17 (11) : 1766- 1773 Download publication
(2002) Bentin, S., Sagiv, N., Mecklinger, A., Friederici, A. and von Cramon, YD., Priming visual face-processing mechanisms: electrophysiological evidence., Psychol Sci 13 (2) : 190- 193 Download publication
(2001) Vuilleumier, P., Sagiv, N., Hazeltine, E., Poldrack, RA., Swick, D., Rafal, RD. and Gabrieli, JD., Neural fate of seen and unseen faces in visuospatial neglect: A combined event-related functional MRI and event-related potential study, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 98 (6) : 3495- 3500 Download publication
(2001) SAGIV. and Bentin, Shlomo., Structural encoding of human and schematic faces: Holistic and part-based processes, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 13 (7) : 937- 951
(2001) Vuilleumier, P. and Sagiv, N., Two eyes make a pair: facial organization and perceptual learning reduce visual extinction., Neuropsychologia 39 (11) : 1144- 1149 Download publication
Conference Papers
(2012) SAGIV, N., Sobczak, M., Ilbeigi, A. and Williams, S., Social Synaesthesia, 4th International Congress on Synesthesia, Science and Art
(2011) Sobczak, M., Sagiv, N. and Williams, AL., Automatic attributions of human qualities to graphemes and linguistic sequences in synaesthesia: an fMRI study, 15th Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness meeting
(2010) Sagiv, N., Ilbeigi, A., Williams, S. and Williams, AL., Gustatory cortex activation with and without perceptual awareness of taste, 14th Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness meeting
(2010) Sobczak, M., SAGIV, N. and Williams, AL., Reflections of the self: A neuroimaging investigation of the link between animistic thought and self-processing, 14th Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness meetin
(2009) Sagiv, N., Visual-gustatory interactions in synaesthetes and non-synaesthetes, International Congress on Synesthesia and Art
(2008) Sagiv, N., Re-conceptualising synaesthesia: empirical motivation and theoretical advantages, 7th Meeting of the American Synesthesia Association
(2008) Sagiv, N., Do brain mechanisms underlying synaesthesia reflect universal cross-modal interactions?, Asia-Pacific Conference on Vision
(2008) Sagiv, N. and Ward, J., Numerical cognition in colour: synaesthesia for finger counting and dice patterns, 15th Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society
(2008) Sagiv, N., Synaesthesia and the scientific study of consciousness, UK Synaesthesia Association 4nd Annual Meeting
(2008) Sagiv, N. and Ward, J., Synaesthesia for finger counting and dice patterns: a case report and implication for understanding individual differences among synaesthetes, 26th European Workshop on Cognitive Neuropsychology
(2006) Sagiv, N., Ward, J., MartinezConde, S., Macknik, SL., Martinez, LM., Alonso, JM. and Tse, PU., Crossmodal interactions: lessons from synesthesia, 28th European Conference on Visual Perception, VISUAL PERCEPTION, PT 2: FUNDAMENTALS OF AWARENESS: MULTI-SENSORY INTEGRATION AND HIGH-ORDER PERCEPTION (155) : 259- 271
(2005) Sagiv, N., Mulvenna, C., Tsakanikos, E., Witherby, A., Collins, J., Simner, J. and Ward, J., How common is synaesthesia? New prevalence studies and some clues concerning its cognitive, neural, and genetic basis, 12th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive-Neuroscience-Society, JOURNAL OF COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE 83- 83 Download publication
Book Chapters
(2013) Sobczak-Edmans, M. and Sagiv, N., Synaesthetic Personification. In: Simner, J. and Hubbard, EM. eds. Oxford Handbook on Synaesthesia. Oxford University Press
(2009) Sagiv, N., Bailes, F. and Dean, RT., Algorithmic synaesthesia. In: Dean, RT. ed. The Oxford Handbook of Computer Music. New York : Oxford University Press 294- 311
(2005) Sagiv, N. and Robertson, LC., Synesthesia and the Binding Problem. In: Robertson, LC. and Sagiv, N. eds. Synesthesia: Perspectives from Cognitive Neuroscience. Oxford University Press, USA 90- 107
(2005) Sagiv, N., Synesthesia in Perspective. In: Robertson, LC. and Sagiv, N. eds. Synesthesia: Perspectives from Cognitive Neuroscience. Oxford University Press, USA 3- 10
