Professor Ian Robertson

Position: Professor of Psychology

• Contact details: Rm 3.46, Institute of Neuroscience,Lloyd Building, Trinity College Dublin
• Email: ian.robertson@tcd.ie
• Telephone: 353-01-8960-2684

Research Programme

We are dedicated to developing non-pharmacological methods for enhancing brain function, particularly in ageing, but also in conditions such as traumatic brain injury, autism, schizophrenia and attention deficit disorder.
We aim to develop methods whose mechanisms are understood sufficiently well that they can, where appropriate, be combined with pharmacological and other invasive intervention methods.
This programme requires multi-level analysis of complex behaviours, ranging from the molecular genetic, through cellular and systems, to neuropsychological and social.
We have a particular focus on the mind/brain mechanisms underlying attention, based on the evidence that attention has a privileged role in mediating experience-dependent plastic changes in the brain.
The methods we use include neuropsychological and cognitive testing, EEG/ERP, fMRI, MRI, pupillometry, simultaneous EEG/fMRI, Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation and Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation.
We are committed to developing technology-based solutions to allow population-scalable deployment of theoretically-sound and empirically-validated intervention methods.

Selected Articles

O’Keeffe F, Murray B, Coen RF, Dockree P, Bellgrove M Garavan H, Lynch T, Robertson IH (2007) Loss of Insight in Frontotemporal Dementia, Corticobasal Degeneration and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy. Brain 130, 753-764

Dockree P, Kelly SP, Foxe JF, Reilly RB and Robertson IH (2007) Optimal sustained attention is linked to the spectral content of background EEG activity: Greater ongoing tonic alpha (~10Hz) power supports successful phasic goal activation. European Journal of Neuroscience 25: 900-907

O'Connell, R. G., Dockree, P. M., Robertson, I H., Bellgrove, M. A., Foxe, J. J., & Kelly, S. P. (2009). Uncovering the Neural Signature of Lapsing Attention: Electrophysiological Signals Predict Errors up to 20 s before They Occur. Journal of Neuroscience 29 8604-8611.

Dockree PM, X O’Keeffe FM, Moloney, P, Carton, S, Jacoby, LL and Robertson IH (2006) Capture by misleading information and its false acceptance in patients with traumatic brain injury. Brain 129: 128-140.

Bellgrove MA, Chambers CD, Johnson KA, Daibhis A, Daly M, Hawi Z, Lambert D, Gill M , Robertson IH (2007) Dopaminergic genotype biases spatial attention in healthy children. Molecular Psychiatry 12, 786-92

Bellgrove, M.A., Johnson, K.A., Barry, E., Mulligan, A., Hawi, Z., Gill, M., Robertson, I.H., Chambers, C.D (2009) Dopaminergic haplotype predicts spatial inattention in children with ADHD, Archives of General Psychiatry 66, 1135-1142

Greene CM, Bellgrove MA, Gill M, Robertson IH (2009) Noradrenergic genotype predicts lapses in sustained attention Neuropsychologia 47 (2), 591-594.

O’Connell RG, Bellgrove MA, Dockree PM, Lau A, Hester R, Garavan H, Fitzgerald M, Foxe JJ, Robertson IH (2009) The neural correlates of deficient error awareness in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) Neuropsychologia 47 (4), 1149-1159.

O’Connell RG, Dockree PM, Bellgrove MA, Turin A, Ward S, Foxe JJ , Robertson I H (2009) Two types of action error: electrophysiological evidence for separable inhibitory and sustained attention neural mechanismsJournal of Cognitive Neuroscience 21 (1), 93-104.

O’Connell RG, Bellgrove MA, Dockree PM, Lau A, Fitzgerald M, Robertson I H (2008) Self-Alert Training: Volitional Modulation of Autonomic Arousal Improves Sustained Attention. Neuropsychologia 46, 1379-1390

Donohoe G., Morris D. W.. De Sanctis P., Magno E., Montesi J. L., Garavan H. P., Robertson I. H., Javitt D. C., Gill M., Corvin A. P., Foxe J. J. (2008) Early Visual Processing Deficits in Dysbindin-Associated Schizophrenia, Biological Psychiatry 63, 484 - 489

Robertson IH, Mattingley JM, Rorden C and Driver J (1998) Phasic alerting of right hemisphere neglect patients overcomes their spatial deficit in visual awareness. Nature 395, 169-172.

Robertson, I. H., & Murre, J. M. J. (1999) Rehabilitation of brain damage: Brain plasticity and principles of guided recovery. Psychological Bulletin 125, 544-575

TCIN publications 2007 - 2009

Research Funding

Science Foundation Ireland, Health Research Board, Intel/Industrial Development Authority, Glaxo SmithKline/Industrial Development Authority, Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences, European Science Foundation, Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology.