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Professor Fiona Newell
Professor of Experimental Psychology, Psychology
Professor of Experimental Psychology, Trinity Inst. of Neurosciences (TCIN)

Biography

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.

Publications and Further Research Outputs

Peer-Reviewed Publications

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 Journal Article, 2024 DOI

O†Dowd, A. and Hirst, R.J. and Setti, A. and Kenny, R.A. and Newell, F.N., Is a Sex Difference in Audioâ€"Visual Temporal Precision Consistent Across Age Groups? An Update on Hernández et al. (2019), Psychology and Aging, 2024 Journal Article, 2024 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 Journal Article, 2024 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, 2024 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, 2024 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 Journal Article, 2023 DOI

Newell, F.N. and McKenna, E. and Seveso, M.A. and Devine, I. and Alahmad, F. and Hirst, R.J. and O'Dowd, A., Multisensory perception constrains the formation of object categories: A review of evidence from sensory-driven and predictive processes on categorical decisions, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 378, (1886), 2023 Journal Article, 2023 DOI

O'Dowd A., Hirst R.J., Setti A., Kenny R.A., Newell F.N., Older adults with slow sit to stand times show reduced temporal precision of audio"visual integration, Experimental Brain Research, 241, (6), 2023, p1633 - 1642, p1633-1642 Journal Article, 2023 DOI

Cuturi, L.F. and Cooney, S. and Cappagli, G. and Newell, F.N. and Gori, M., Primary Schoolers' Response to a Multisensory Serious Game on Cartesian Plane Coordinates in Immersive Virtual Reality, Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 26, (8), 2023, p648-656 Journal Article, 2023 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, 2023 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, 2023 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, 2023 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, 2023 DOI

Gori, M. and Price, S. and Newell, F.N. and Berthouze, N. and Volpe, G., Multisensory Perception and Learning: Linking Pedagogy, Psychophysics, and Human-Computer Interaction, Multisensory Research, 2022 Journal Article, 2022 DOI

O' Dowd, A. and Cooney, S.M. and Newell, F.N., Self-reported vividness of tactile imagery for object properties and body regions: An exploratory study, Consciousness and Cognition, 103, (103376), 2022 Journal Article, 2022 DOI

Merriman, N.A. and Roudaia, E. and OndŠej, J. and Romagnoli, M. and Orvieto, I. and O†Sullivan, C. and Newell, F.N., †CityQuest,†A Custom-Designed Serious Game, Enhances Spatial Memory Performance in Older Adults, Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 14, (806418), 2022 Journal Article, 2022 DOI

Cunningham J, O'Dowd A, Broglio S, Newell FN, Kelly A, Joyce O, Januszewski J, Wilson F, Multisensory perception is not influenced by previous concussion history in retired rugby union players, Brain Injury, 2022 Journal Article, 2022 DOI

McGovern, D.P. and Burns, S. and Hirst, R.J. and Newell, F.N., Perceptual training narrows the temporal binding window of audiovisual integration in both younger and older adults, Neuropsychologia, 173, (108309), 2022 Journal Article, 2022 DOI

O' Dowd, A. and Hirst, R.J. and Setti, A. and Kenny, R.A. and Newell, F.N., Self-Reported Sensory Decline in Older Adults Is Longitudinally Associated with Both Modality-General and Modality-Specific Factors, Innovation in Aging, 6, (7), 2022 Journal Article, 2022 DOI

O'Dowd, A. and Cooney, S.M. and Sorgini, F. and O' Rourke, E. and Reilly, R.B. and Newell, F.N. and Hirst, R.J., The development of visuotactile congruency effects for sequences of events, Journal of experimental child psychology, 207, 2021, p105094 Journal Article, 2021 DOI

Nuala Brady, Kate Darmody, Fiona Newell, Sarah Maeve Cooney, Holistic processing of words and faces in dyslexia, PLoS One, 16, (12), 2021, pe0259986 Journal Article, 2021 DOI

Cooney S.M., Holmes C.A., Newell F.N., Children's spatial"numerical associations on horizontal, vertical, and sagittal axes, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 209, 2021 Journal Article, 2021 DOI

Hirst, R.J. and Whelan, R. and Boyle, R. and Setti, A. and Knight, S. and O'Connor, J. and Williamson, W. and McMorrow, J. and Fagan, A.J. and Meaney, J.F. and Kenny, R.A. and De Looze, C. and Newell, F.N., Gray matter volume in the right angular gyrus is associated with differential patterns of multisensory integration with aging, Neurobiology of Aging, 100, 2021, p83-90 Journal Article, 2021 TARA - Full Text DOI

Stoycheva, P. and KauramÀki, J. and Newell, F.N. and Tiippana, K., Haptic recognition memory and lateralisation for verbal and nonverbal shapes, Memory, 29, (8), 2021, p1043-1057 Journal Article, 2021 DOI

Hirst, R.J. and Cassarino, M. and Kenny, R.A. and Newell, F.N. and Setti, A., Urban and rural environments differentially shape multisensory perception in ageing, Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 2021 Journal Article, 2021 TARA - Full Text DOI

Brady, N. and Darmody, K. and Newell, F.N. and Cooney, S.M., Holistic processing of faces and words predicts reading accuracy and speed in dyslexic readers, PLoS ONE, 16, (12 December), 2021 Journal Article, 2021 DOI

O'Dowd, A; Sorgini, F; Newell, F.N., Seeing an image of the hand affects performance on a crossmodal congruency task for sequences of events, Consciousness and Cognition, 2020 Journal Article, 2020

Hirst RJ, Setti A, De Looze C, Akuffo KO, Peto T, Kenny RA, Newell FN., The effect of eye disease, cataract surgery and hearing aid use on multisensory integration in ageing., Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior, 133, 2020, p161-176 Journal Article, 2020 TARA - Full Text DOI

Stoycheva, P.L. and KauramÀki, J. and Newell, F.N. and Tiippana, K., Laterality effects in the haptic discrimination of verbal and non-verbal shapes, Laterality, 25, (6), 2020, p654-674 Journal Article, 2020 DOI

Hirst, R.J. and McGovern, D.P. and Setti, A. and Shams, L. and Newell, F.N., What you see is what you hear: Twenty years of research using the Sound-Induced Flash Illusion, Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 118, 2020, p759-774 Journal Article, 2020 DOI TARA - Full Text

Ho, P.K. and Newell, F.N., Changes in perceptual category affects serial dependence in judgements of attractiveness, Visual Cognition, 28, (10), 2020, p557-580 Journal Article, 2020 DOI

O"Dowd, A., Newell, F.N., The rubber hand illusion is influenced by self-recognition, Neuroscience Letters, 720, 2020, p134756 Journal Article, 2020 DOI

Ho, PK; Newell, FN, Turning Heads: The Effects of Face View and Eye Gaze Direction on the Perceived Attractiveness of Expressive Faces, Perception, 2020 Journal Article, 2020 DOI

Hirst, Rebecca J., Setti, Annalisa, Kenny, Rose A., Newell, Fiona N., Age-related sensory decline mediates the Sound-Induced Flash Illusion: Evidence for reliability weighting models of multisensory perception, Scientific Reports, 9, (1), 2019 Journal Article, 2019 TARA - Full Text DOI

O'Dowd, Alan, Cooney, Sarah M., McGovern, David P., Newell, Fiona N., Do synaesthesia and mental imagery tap into similar cross-modal processes?, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 374, (1787), 2019, p20180359 Journal Article, 2019 DOI TARA - Full Text

Belinda Hernández, Annalisa Setti, Rose Anne Kenny, Fiona N Newell, Individual differences in ageing, cognitive status, and sex on susceptibility to the sound-induced flash illusion: A large-scale study., American Psychological Association, 34, (7), 2019, p978 Journal Article, 2019

Belinda Hernández, Annalisa Setti, Rose Anne Kenny, and Fiona N. Newell, Inefficient audio-visual integration is associated with ageing, cognitive status and sex, 2019 Journal Article, 2019 DOI

Joyce O, Hopkins D, McCollum A, Newell F, Wilson F, Kelly A, Sports concussion and brain health. The need for objective tests of pathological brain indices, Journal of Neurotrauma, 37th Annual National Neurotrauma Symposium, Pittsburgh, USA, June 29- July 3rd , 36, (13), Mary Ann Liebert Inc, 2019, ppAO3-08 Poster, 2019 DOI

Ho, P.K. and Woods, A. and Newell, F.N., Temporal shifts in eye gaze and facial expressions independently contribute to the perceived attractiveness of unfamiliar faces, Visual Cognition, 26, (10), 2018, p831-852 Journal Article, 2018 DOI

Roudaia, E., Calabro, FJ., Vaina, LM., Newell, FN., Aging impairs audiovisual facilitation of object motion within self-motion, Multisensory Research, 31, (1), 2018, p251 - 272 Journal Article, 2018 DOI

O'Callaghan, G., O'Dowd, A., Stapleton, J., Merriman,NA., Roudaia, E. & Newell, FN., Changes in Regional Brain Grey-Matter Volume Following Successful Completion of a Sensori-Motor Intervention Targeted at Healthy and Fall-Prone Older Adults, Multisensory Research, 31, (1), 2018, p317 - 344 Journal Article, 2018 DOI

O'Callaghan G, O'Dowd A, Simões-Franklin C, Stapleton J, Newell FN., Tactile-to-Visual Cross-Modal Transfer of Texture Categorisation Following Training: An fMRI Study., Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, 2018, p12 - 24 Journal Article, 2018 TARA - Full Text DOI

Merriman, N.A. and Roudaia, E. and Romagnoli, M. and Orvieto, I. and Newell, F.N., Acceptability of a custom-designed game, CityQuest, aimed at improving balance confidence and spatial cognition in fall-prone and healthy older adults, Behaviour and Information Technology, 37, (6), 2018, p538-557 Journal Article, 2018 DOI

Francesca Sorgini, Luca Massari, Jessica D'Abbraccio, Eduardo Palermo, Arianna Menciassi, Petar Petrovic, Alberto Mazzoni, Maria Chiara Carrozza, Fiona N. Newell, Calogero M. Oddo, Neuromorphic vibrotactile stimulation of fingertips for encoding object stiffness in telepresence sensory substitution and augmentation applications, Sensors, 18, (261), 2018, p1 - 18 Journal Article, 2018 DOI TARA - Full Text

Niamh A. Merriman, Jan Ondrej, Alicia Rybicki, Eugenie Roudaia, Carol O'Sullivan and Fiona N. Newell, Crowded environments reduce spatial memory in older but not younger adults, Psychological Research, 82, 2018, p407 - 428 Journal Article, 2018 DOI

Bülthoff I, Newell F.N, Crossmodal priming of unfamiliar faces supports early interactions between voices and faces in person perception, Visual Cognition , 2017, p1-19 Journal Article, 2017 TARA - Full Text DOI URL

McGovern DP, Walsh K, Bell J, Newell FN, Individual differences in context-dependent effects reveal common mechanisms underlying the direction aftereffect and direction repulsion, Vision Research, 141, 2017, p109 - 116 Journal Article, 2017 DOI TARA - Full Text

Special Issue of Multisensory Research: Synaesthesia and Crossmodal Perception, 30, 3-5, (2017), 195 - 460p, Newell, FN., Amedi, A., & Mitchell, KJ., [eds.] Journal, 2017 Other DOI

Newell, FN., Introduction to the Special Issue on Synaesthesia and Crossmodal Perception, Multisensory Reserch, 30, (3), 2017, p195 - 197 Journal Article, 2017 DOI

Kiiski HS, Cullen B, Clavin SL, Newell FN, Perceptual and social attributes underlining age-related preferences for faces, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2016 Journal Article, 2016 DOI TARA - Full Text

Merriman, Niamh A; Ondrej, Jan; Roudaia, Eugenie; O'Sullivan, Carol; Newell, Fiona N; , Familiar environments enhance object and spatial memory in both younger and older adults, Experimental Brain Research, 234, (6), 2016, p1555-1574 Journal Article, 2016 DOI

McGovern DP, Roudaia E, Newell FN, Roach NW, Perceptual learning shapes multisensory causal inference via two distinct mechanisms, Scientific Reports, 6, (24673), 2016, p1 - 11 Journal Article, 2016 TARA - Full Text DOI

Newell FN, Mitchell KJ., Multisensory integration and cross-modal learning in synaesthesia: A unifying model., Neuropsychologia, 88, 2016, p140 - 150 Journal Article, 2016 DOI

McGovern, DP; Astle, AT; Clavin, SL; Newell, FN, Task-specific transfer of perceptual learning across sensory modalities., Current Biology, 26, (1), 2016, p20 - 21 Journal Article, 2016 DOI

Maguinness, C., Newell, F.N., Non-rigid, but not rigid, motion interferes with the processing of structural face information in developmental prosopagnosia, Neuropsychologia, 70, 2015, p281-295 Journal Article, 2015 DOI

Bulthoff I., Newell F.N., Distinctive voices enhance the visual recognition of unfamiliar faces , Cognition , 137 , ( ), 2015, p9 - 21 Journal Article, 2015 DOI TARA - Full Text URL

Whyatt C, Merriman NA, Young WR, Newell FN, Craig C., A Wii Bit of Fun: A Novel Platform to Deliver Effective Balance Training to Older Adults., Games for Health Journal, 4, (6), 2015, p423 - 433 Journal Article, 2015 DOI

Merriman, N.A., Whyatt, C., Setti, A., Craig, C., Newell, F.N., Successful balance training is associated with improved multisensory function in fall-prone older adults, Computers in Human Behavior, 45, 2015, p192-203 Journal Article, 2015 DOI

Barrett, M.M., Newell, F.N., Task-specific, age related effects in the cross-modal identification and localisation of objects, Multisensory Research, 28, (1-2), 2015, p111-151 Journal Article, 2015 DOI

H Kiiski, L Hoyet, AT Woods, C O'Sullivan, FN Newell, Strutting Hero, Sneaking Villain: Utilizing Body Motion Cues to Predict the Intentions of Others, ACM Transactions on Applied Perception, 13, (1), 2015, p1 - 21 Journal Article, 2015 DOI

McGovern DP, Roudaia E, Stapleton J, McGinnity TM, Newell FN, The sound-induced flash illusion reveals dissociable age-related effects in multisensory integration., Frontiers in aging neuroscience, 6, 2014, p250 Journal Article, 2014 DOI TARA - Full Text

Stapleton, J., Setti, A., Doheny, E. P., Kenny, R. A., & Newell, F. N. , A standing posture is associated with increased susceptibility to the sound-induced flash illusion in fall-prone older adults. , Experimental brain research, 232, (3), 2014, p423 - 434 Journal Article, 2014 DOI

Setti, A. Stapleton, J. Leahy, D. Kenny, RA & Newell, FN. , Improving the efficiency of multisensory integration in older adults: audio-visual temporal discrimination training reduces the susceptibility to the sound-induced flash illusion. , Neuropsychologia, 61, (1), 2014, p259-268- Journal Article, 2014 DOI TARA - Full Text

Roudaia, E., Hoyet, L., McGovern, D., O'Sullivan, C., Newell, F.N. , Effects of ageing and sound on perceived timing of human interactions, Proceedings - SAP 2013: ACM Symposium on Applied Perception, SAP 2013: ACM Symposium on Applied Perception, 2013, pp123 Conference Paper, 2013 DOI

Roudaia E., Gallego J., Nolan H., Fearon C., Newell F., Reilly RB, Sensorimotor synchronization to auditory and visual cues in ageing and Parkinson's disease, EU Cost Action TIMELY, February, 2013 Conference Paper, 2013 URL

Setti A, Burke KE, Kenny R, Newell FN. , Susceptibility to a multisensory speech illusion in older persons is driven by perceptual processes., Frontiers in Psychology: Language Sciences. , 4, (575), 2013 Journal Article, 2013 Other TARA - Full Text

O'Hanlon E, Newell FN, Mitchell KJ, Combined structural and functional imaging reveals cortical deactivations in grapheme-color synaesthesia., Frontiers in psychology, 4, 2013, p755 Journal Article, 2013 TARA - Full Text DOI

Recognizing others: Adaptive changes to person recognition throughout the lifespan in, editor(s)Bennett L. Schwartz, Mark L. Howe, Michael P. Toglia, Henry Otgaar , What is adaptive about adaptive memory?, UK, Oxford University Press, 2013, pp231 - 257, [Maguinness C, Newell FN] Book Chapter, 2013 URL

O'Hanlon, E., Newell, FN., Mitchell, K. , Combined structural and functional imaging reveals cortical deactivations in grapheme-colour synaesthesia. , Frontiers in Cognitive Science, 4, (755), 2013, pPMC3812565 Journal Article, 2013 TARA - Full Text

Synaesthesia, meaning, and multi-lingual speakers in, editor(s)Julia Simner and Edward Hubbard , Oxford Handbook of Synaesthesia, Oxford, UK, Oxford University Press, 2013, pp181 - 204, [Newell, F.N.] Book Chapter, 2013

Pasqualotto A, Finucane CM, Newell FN, Ambient visual information confers a context-specific, long-term benefit on memory for haptic scenes., Cognition, 128, (3), 2013, p363-379 Journal Article, 2013

Chan, JS & Newell, FN, The effect of non-informative spatial sounds on haptic scene recognition, International Journal of Autonomous and Adaptive Communications Systems, 6, (4), 2013, p342 - 365 Journal Article, 2013 TARA - Full Text

Barrett, M.M., Doheny, E.P., Setti, A., Maguinness, C., Foran, T.G., Kenny, R.A. & Newell, F.N., Reduced vision selectively impairs spatial updating in fall prone older adults, Multisensory Research, 1, (1), 2013, p69 - 94 Journal Article, 2013 DOI

Kiiski, H., Hoyet, L., Cullen, B., O'Sullivan, C., Newell, F.N, Perception and prediction of social intentions from human body motion, Proceedings - SAP 2013: ACM Symposium on Applied Perception, ACM Symposium on Applied Perception, Dublin; Ireland, 22-23 August, 2013, pp134- Conference Paper, 2013 DOI

McHugh, J.E., Kearney, G., Rice, H., Newell, F.N, The sound of the crowd: auditory information modulates the perceived emotion of a crowd based on bodily expressions., Emotion (Washington, D.C.), 12, (1), 2012, p120-131 Journal Article, 2012 DOI

Barrett, M., Cullen, B., Maguinness, C., Merriman, N. Roudaia, E., Stapleton, J. Stienen, BMC & Newell, FN, A glance back on 50 years of research in perception, Irish Journal of Psychology, 33, (2-3), 2012, p65-71 Journal Article, 2012 DOI

Emma J. Rose, Ciara Greene, Sinead Kelly, Derek W. Morris, Ian H. Robertson, Ciara Fahey, Sarah Jacobson, John O'Doherty, Fiona N. Newell, Jane McGrath, Arun Bodke, Hugh Garavan, Thomas Frodl, Michael Gill, Aiden P. Corvin, Gary Donohoe, The NOS1 variant rs6490121 is associated with variation in prefrontal function and gray matter density in healthy individuals, NeuroImage, 60, (1), 2012, p614-622 Journal Article, 2012 TARA - Full Text

Rose EJ, Morris DW, Fahey C, Robertson IH, Greene C, O'Doherty J, Newell FN, Garavan H, McGrath J, Bokde A, Tropea D, Gill M, Corvin AP, Donohoe G., The effect of the neurogranin schizophrenia risk variant rs12807809 on brain structure and function., Twin Research and Human Genetics, 15, (3), 2012, p296 - 303 Journal Article, 2012 DOI TARA - Full Text

Pomianowska I, Germeys F, Verfaillie K, Newell FN., The role of social cues in the deployment of spatial attention: head-body relationships automatically activate directional spatial codes in a Simon task., Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, 6, (4), 2012, p1 - 7 Journal Article, 2012 DOI

O'Mahony, C. & Newell, F.N., Integration of faces and voices, but not faces and names, in familiar person recognition, British Journal of Psychology, 103, (1), 2012, p73 - 82 Journal Article, 2012 DOI

Chan, JS., Maguinness, C., Lisiecka, D. Setti, A. & Newell, FN, Evidence for crossmodal interactions across depth on target localisation performance in a spatial array, Perception, 41, 2012, p757 - 773 Journal Article, 2012 DOI

Newell, FN, Setti, A. Foran, T., Burke, K., & Kenny, RA, Reduced vision impairs spatial cognition in fall-prone older adults, INSIGHT: Research and Practice in Visual Impairment and Blindness, 4, (3), 2011, p103 - 111 Journal Article, 2011 URL

Simoes-Franklin, C., Whitaker, T.A. & Newell, FN, Active and passive touch differentially activate somatosensory cortex in texture perception, Human Brain Mapping, 32, (7), 2011, p1067-1080 Journal Article, 2011 DOI

Setti A, Finnigan S, Sobolewski R, McLaren L, Robertson IH, Reilly RB, Kenny RA, Newell FN, Audiovisual temporal discrimination is less efficient with aging: an event-related potential study., Neuroreport, 22, (11), 2011, p554-8 Journal Article, 2011 DOI

Setti, A., Finnigan, S., Sobolewski, R., McLaren, L., Robertson, I.H., Reilly, R.B., Anne Kenny, R., Newell, F.N., Audiovisual temporal discrimination is less efficient with aging: an event-related potential study, NeuroReport , 22, (11), 2011, p554-558 Journal Article, 2011 DOI

Maguinness C, Setti A, Burke KE, Kenny RA, Newell FN, The Effect of Combined Sensory and Semantic Components on Audio-Visual Speech Perception in Older Adults, Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 3, (19), 2011 Journal Article, 2011 TARA - Full Text

Setti, A., Burke, K.E., Kenny, RA., & Newell, F.N., Is inefficient multisensory processing associated with falls in older people?, Experimental Brain Research., 209, (3), 2011, p375-384 Journal Article, 2011 DOI

Alais, D., Newell, F.N. & Mamassian, P., Multisensory processing in review: From physiology to behaviour, Seeing & Perceiving, 23, (1), 2010, p3 - 38 Journal Article, 2010 TARA - Full Text URL

Chan, J.S., Simoes-Franklin, C., Garavan, H. & Newell, F.N., Static images of novel, moveable objects learned through touch activate visual area hMT+, Neuroimage, 49, 2010, p1708 - 1716 Journal Article, 2010 DOI

Visuo-haptic perception of objects and scenes in, editor(s)Marcus J. Naumer & Jochen Kaiser , Multisensory object perception in the primate brain, Springer, 2010, [Newell, F.N.] Book Chapter, 2010

McHugh, J.E., McDonnell, R., O'Sullivan, C. & Newell, F.N., Perceiving emotion in crowds: the role of dynamic body postures on the perception of emotion in crowded scenes, Experimental Brain Research., 204, (3), 2010, p361 - 372 Journal Article, 2010 DOI

Bargary, G, Barnett, KJ, Mitchell, KJ, Newell, FN, Colored-speech synaesthesia is triggered by multisensory, not unisensory, perception., Psychological Science, 20, (5), 2009, p529 - 533 Journal Article, 2009 DOI

McDonnell, R., Joerg, S., McHugh, J., Newell, F.N. & O'Sullivan, C., Investigating the role of body shape on the perception of emotion, ACM: Transactions on Applied Perception, 6, (3), 2009, p14 - 25 Journal Article, 2009 DOI

Woods, A.T., Newell, F.N., Canonical views in haptic object perception, Perception, 37, (12), 2009, p1867 - 1878 Journal Article, 2009 DOI

Barnett KJ, Feeney, J., Gormley, M & Newell FN, An exploratory study of linguistic-colour associations across languages in multilingual synaesthetes, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 62, (7), 2009, p1343 - 1355 Journal Article, 2009 DOI

Kenny, RA., Dishongh, T., Newell, F.N. & Ni Scanail, C., Research to reduce falls in older people: the TRIL centre, Geriatric Medicine, 39, (6), 2009, p326 - 327 Journal Article, 2009

Casey, S, Mernagh, M. & Newell, FN., Are attractive facial characteristics peculiar to the sex of a face?, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 62, (5), 2009, p833 - 843 Journal Article, 2009 DOI

Setti, A. & Newell FN, The effect of body and part-based motion on the recognition of unfamiliar objects, Visual Cognition, 18, (3), 2009, p456 - 480 Journal Article, 2009 DOI

Chan, JS & Newell, FN, Behavioural evidence for task-dependent, 'what' versus 'where' processing within and across modalities, Perception & Psychophysics, 70, (1), 2008, p36 - 49 Journal Article, 2008 URL TARA - Full Text DOI

Whitaker TA, Simoes-Franklin C, Newell FN., Vision and touch: independent or integrated systems for the perception of texture?, Brain Research, 1242, (C), 2008, p59 - 72 Journal Article, 2008 DOI

Barnett, KJ, Finucane, C, Asher, JE, Bargary, G, Corvin, AP, Newell, FN, Mitchell, KJ, Familial patterns and the origins of individual differences in synaesthesia., Cognition, 106, (2), 2008, p871-893 Journal Article, 2008 DOI

Barnett KJ, & Newell FN, Synaesthesia is associated with enhanced visual imagery, Consciousness and Cognition, 3, 2008, p1032 - 1039 Journal Article, 2008 DOI

Barnett, KJ, Foxe, JJ, Molholm, S, Kelly, SP, Shalgi, S, Mitchell, KJ, Newell, FN, Differences in early sensory-perceptual processing in synesthesia: a visual evoked potential study., NeuroImage, 43, (3), 2008, p605-613 Journal Article, 2008 DOI

Barnett KJ, Newell FN, Finucane C, Corvin AP, Mitchell KJ., Familial patterns and the origins of individual differences in synaesthesia, Cognition, 106, (2), 2008, p871 - 893 Journal Article, 2008 DOI

Rachel McDonnell, Sophie Jörg, Joanna McHugh, Fiona Newell and Carol O'Sullivan, Evaluating the emotional content of human motions on real and virtual characters, ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium on Applied Perception in Graphics and Visualization (APGV'08), Los Angeles, August, edited by S. Creem-Regehr and K. Myszkowski , ACM Press, 2008, pp67-74 Conference Paper, 2008 DOI URL

Roberts, G.M.P., Newell, F., Simoes-Franklin, C., & Garavan, H. , Menstrual cycle phase modulates cognitive control over male but not female stimuli, Brain Research , 1224, 2008, p79 - 87 Journal Article, 2008 TARA - Full Text

Whitaker, T.A., Simões-Franklin, C., Newell, F.N. , The natural truth: The contribution of vision and touch in the categorisation of "naturalness", Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics) , 6th International Conference on Haptics: Perception, Devices and Scenarios, EuroHaptics 2008, Madrid, 10-14 June, 5024, (2008), 2008, pp319-324 Conference Paper, 2008 DOI

Newell, FN, Shams, L., New insights into multisensory perception, Perception, 36, (10), 2007, p1415 - 1418 Journal Article, 2007

Rachel McDonnell, Fiona Newell, Carol O'Sullivan, Smooth Movers: Perceptually Guided Human Motion Simulation, Eurographics/ ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium on Computer Animation, San Diego, U.S., August, 2007, edited by D. Metaxas and J. Popovic , ACM Press, 2007, pp259 - 269 Conference Paper, 2007 URL

Casey, S., Newell, F.N. , Are representations of unfamiliar faces independent of encoding modality?, Neuropsychologia, 45, (3-4), 2007, p506 - 513 Journal Article, 2007 DOI

Special Issue of Perception: Advances in Multisensory Perception, 36, 10, (2007), Newell, FN & Shams, L, [eds.], Guest Editors Journal, 2007 DOI

Ernst, MO, Lange, C. & Newell, FN, Multisensory Recognition of Actively Explored Objects, Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 61, (3), 2007, p242 - 253 Journal Article, 2007 DOI

Chan JS, Maucher T, Schemmel J, Kilroy, D, Newell FN, Meier KH., The Virtual Haptic Display: A device for exploring 2-D virtual shapes in the tactile modality, Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 39, (4), 2007, p802 - 810 Journal Article, 2007 TARA - Full Text

Pasqualotto, A., Finucane, C., Newell, F.N., The role of visual experience on the representation and updating of novel haptic scenes, Brain and Cognition, 65, (2), 2007, p184 - 194 Journal Article, 2007 DOI

Rachel McDonnell, Sophie Joerg, Jessica Hodgins, Fiona Newell, Carol O'Sullivan, Virtual Shapers & Movers: Form and Motion affect Sex Perception, ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, APGV'07: ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium on Applied Perception in Graphics and Visualization, Tuebingen, Germany, 25-27 May, 253, 2007, pp7 - 10 Conference Paper, 2007 URL TARA - Full Text DOI

Bulthoff, I., & Newell, F.N., The role of familiarity in the recognition of static and dynamic objects., Progress in Brain Research, 154, 2006, p315 - 325 Journal Article, 2006 DOI

Pasqualotto, A., Finucane, C.M., Newell, F.N., Erratum: Visual and haptic representations of scenes are updated with observer movement (Experimental Brain Research (2005) DOI: 10.1007/s00221-005- 2388-5), 2005, - 592 Miscellaneous, 2005 DOI

Newell, F.N., Sheppard, D.M., Edelman, S., Shapiro, K.L., The interaction of shape- and location-based priming in object categorisation: evidence for a hybrid "what+where" representation stage., Vision Research, 45, (16), 2005, p2065 - 2080 Journal Article, 2005 DOI

Newell, F.N., Woods, A.T., Mernagh, M., Bülthoff, H.H., Visual, haptic and cross modal recognition of scenes., Experimental Brain Research., 161, (2), 2005, p233 - 242 Journal Article, 2005 DOI

Casey, S., Newell, F.N. , The role of short and long term familiarity on visual and haptic face recognition., Experimental Brain Research., 166, (3-4), 2005, p583 - 591 Journal Article, 2005 DOI

Pasqualotto, A., Finucane, C., Newell, F.N., Visual and haptic scenes are updated with observer motion., Experimental Brain Research., 166, (3-4), 2005, p481 - 488 Journal Article, 2005 DOI

Cross modal scene and object perception. in, editor(s)Heller, M., Ballesteros, S. , Touch, Blindness and Neuroscience., Madrid, Spain, UNED, 2004, pp261 - 270, [Newell, F.N.] Book Chapter, 2004

Bülthoff, I., Newell, FN. , Categorical perception of sex occurs in familiar but not unfamiliar faces, Visual Cognition., 11, (7), 2004, p823 - 855 Journal Article, 2004 DOI

Woods, A.T., Newell, F.N., Visual, haptic and cross-modal recognition of objects and scenes., Journal of Physiology (Paris)., 98, 2004, p147 - 159 Journal Article, 2004 DOI

Newell FN, Wallraven C, Huber S, The role of characteristic motion in object categorization, Journal of Vision, 4, (2), 2004, p118 - 129 Journal Article, 2004 DOI

Cross modal object recognition. in, editor(s)Calvert, G., Spence, C., Stein, B. , The Handbook of Multisensory Processes, MA, USA, MIT Press, 2004, pp123 - 140, [Newell, F.N.] Book Chapter, 2004

Peskin, M., Newell, F.N., Familiarity breeds attraction: Effects of exposure on the attractiveness of typical and distinctive faces, Perception, 33, (2), 2004, p147-157 Journal Article, 2004 DOI

Newell, F.N., Brown, V., Findlay, J.M. , Is object search mediated by object-based or image-based representations?, Spatial Vision, 17, (4-5), 2004, p511 - 542 Journal Article, 2004 DOI

Woods, A.T., O'Modhrain, S., Newell, F.N. , The effect of temporal delay and spatial differences between objects on crossmodal recognition., Cognitive, Affective and Behavioural Neuroscience, 4, (2), 2004, p260 - 269 Journal Article, 2004 URL

Bülthoff, I., Newell, F.N., Interaction between vision and speech in face recognition, Journal of Vision, 3, (9), 2003, p825a Journal Article, 2003 DOI

Newell, F.N., Bülthoff, H.H, Perceptual categorisation of familiar objects, Cognition, 85, (2), 2002, p113 - 143 Journal Article, 2002

Newell, F.N., Bülthoff, H.H., Categorical perception of familiar objects, Cognition, 85, (25), 2002, p113-143 Journal Article, 2002 DOI

Newell, F.N., Ernst, M.O., Tjan, B.J., Bülthoff, H.H., Viewpoint dependence in visual and haptic object recognition, Psychological Science, 12, 2001, p37 - 42 Journal Article, 2001 DOI

Buelthoff, I.and Newell, F.N, Gender, average heads and categorical perception, Journal of Vision, 1, (3), 2001, p281a Journal Article, 2001 DOI

Duncan, J., Seitz, R., Kolodny, J., Bor, D., Ahmed, A., Newell, F.N., Emslie, H., A neural basis for general intelligence, Science, 289, (5478), 2000, p457 - 460 Journal Article, 2000 DOI

Newell, F.N., Chiroro, P., Valentine, T., Recognising Unfamiliar Faces: The Effects of Distinctiveness and View, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 52, (2), 1999, p509 - 534 Journal Article, 1999 DOI

Newell, F.N., Stimulus context and view dependence in object recognition, Perception, 27, (1), 1998, p47 - 68 Journal Article, 1998 DOI

Newell, F.N., Findlay, J.M., Visual search for rotated three-dimensional objects, Perception, 26, (10), 1997, p1231 - 1257 Journal Article, 1997

Perceptual Cues and Object Recognition in, editor(s)Carr, K., England, A. , Simulated and Virtual Realities, London, Taylor and Francis, 1995, pp42 - 50, [Findlay, J.M., Newell, F.N.] Book Chapter, 1995

Newell, F.N., Findlay, J.M., Viewpoint Invariance in Object Recognition., Irish Journal of Psychology, 13, (4), 1992, p494 - 507 Journal Article, 1992

Non-Peer-Reviewed Publications

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, 2008

McHugh, J.E. & Newell, F.N. , Mixed emotions: audition can modulate the visual perception of the emotion of a crowd, International Multisensory Research Forum, CCNY, New York, June 2009 Poster,

Research Expertise

Description

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.

Projects

  • Title
    • weDraw
  • 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
  • Date From
    • 1 Jan., 2017
  • Date To
    • 31 Dec, 2018
  • Title
    • CityQuest: a serious game to enhance cognition and improve balance control
  • 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
  • Date From
    • 1 jan 2016
  • Date To
    • 31 mar 2017
  • Title
    • Socialising Agents: endowing virtual agents with multisensory social skills to increase appeal and user engagement
  • 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
  • Date From
    • July, 2011
  • Date To
    • June, 2015
  • Title
    • VERVE
  • 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
  • Date From
    • 2011
  • Date To
    • 2014
  • Title
    • The development of a novel, low-cost intervention games system designed to improve physical and mental well being in older adults
  • 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
  • Date From
    • March, 2011
  • Date To
    • October, 2011
  • Title
    • TRIL: Technology Research for Independent Living
  • Summary
    • The Technology Research for Independent Living (TRIL) project is a large-scale collaboration between Intel Corporation, GE and research teams at UCD, TCD, NUI Galway and St James's Hospital, Dublin. This multi-disciplinary research centre focuses on discovering how technology can be used to facilitate older people living independent lives in the location of their choice.
  • Funding Agency
    • Intel Corps., GE and Industrial Development Agency
  • Date From
    • Dec, 2008
  • Date To
    • Dec, 2011
  • Title
    • Cross-Border Research and Development Funding Programme
  • Summary
    • Collaborative project between ISCS in Ulster University and Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience to conduct neuroimaging on older adults
  • Funding Agency
    • DEL-NI:
  • Date From
    • July, 2011
  • Date To
    • June 2014
  • Title
    • MONAT: measurement of naturalness
  • Summary
    • We instinctively know whether something is natural, or a synthetic mimic. But the key factors responsible for this perception have yet to be identified: this is the primary objective of this project. The perception of naturalness is dominated, in most cases, by visual appearance and touch. Basic visual sensory information, such as colour and gloss, and other visual triggers, such as shape and size is often sufficient to differentiate between natural and synthetic materials. Touching the material serves to reinforce the initial visual perception: here tactile information from cutaneous pressure sensitive and thermal sensory transducers, as well as kinesthetic data, provides the requisite sensory input. This project aims to understand how these sensory data streams are processed by the relevant neural networks and how they contribute to the cognitive processes associated with the perception of naturalness.
  • Funding Agency
    • EU 6th Framework
  • Date From
    • Sept, 2006
  • Date To
    • Aug, 2009
  • Title
    • Metropolis: Supercrowds for Multisensory Urban Simulations
  • Summary
    • This is a novel interdisciplinary project combining computer graphics, sound engineering and cognitive neuroscience research, in which we apply principles of human multisensory perception to create realistic, scalable and large-scale simulations of crowds.
  • Funding Agency
    • Science Foundation Ireland
  • Date From
    • Jan, 2007
  • Date To
    • June, 2011

Keywords

BRAIN AGEING; BRAIN-FUNCTION; FACE PERCEPTION; FACIAL ATTRACTIVENESS; MULTISENSORY PERCECEPTION; OBJECT RECOGNITION; SPATIAL COGNITION; SYNAESTHESIA; Virtual Reality; VISION, AUDITION, SOMATOSENSATION

Recognition

Awards and Honours

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

Memberships

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