Background:
Ger’s research is focused on perceptual decision-making and attention, and how these functions interact in the human brain. This currently involves the measurement of behaviour, EEG, and eye-tracking in response to visual stimuli. The goal of this research is to discover how the brain initiates and facilitates the process of making perceptual decisions. Another research interest of Ger’s is the extent to which visuospatial attention is biased to the left or right hemifield and how this can be used as an indicator of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Alzheimer’s disease.
Publications:
Loughnane, GM, Newman, DP, Tamang, S, Kelly, SP, & O’Connell, RG (2018). Antagonistic interactions between microsaccades and evidence accumulation processes during decision formation. Journal of Neuroscience 38(9): 2163- 2176.
Loughnane, GM, Newman, DP, Kelly, SP, O’Connell, RG, & Bellgrove, MA (2017). Visuospatial asymmetries arise from differences in the onset time of perceptual evidence accumulation. Journal of Neuroscience 37(12): 3378 – 3385.
Egan, JM, Loughnane, GM, Fletcher, H & Lalor, EC (2017). A gaze independent hybrid-BCI based on visual spatial attention. Journal of Neural Engineering 14(4).
Loughnane, GM, Newman, DP, Bellgrove, MA, Lalor, EC, Kelly, SP & O’Connell, RG (2016). Target selection signals influence perceptual decisions by modulating the onset and rate of evidence accumulation. Current Biology 26(4): 496 – 502.
Newman DP, Lockley SW, Loughnane GM, Martins ACP, Abe R, Zoratti MTR, Kelly SP, O’Neill MH, Rajaratnam SMW, O’Connell RG, & Bellgrove MA (2016). Ocular exposure to blue-enriched light has an asymmetric influence on neural activity and spatial attention. Scientific Reports, 6:27754.
Loughnane, GM, Shanley JP, Lalor, EC & O’Connell, RG (2015). Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence of opposing lateral visuo-spatial asymmetries in the upper and lower visual fields. Cortex, 63: 220 – 231. pdf
Newman DP, Loughnane GM, Abe R, Zoratti MT, Kelly SP, O’Connell RG, Bellgrove MA (2014). Differential shift in spatial bias over time depends on observers’ initial bias: observer subtypes, or regression to the mean? Neuropsychologia, 64: 33 – 40. pdf
Sheedy CM, Power AJ, Reilly RB, Crosse MJ, Loughnane GM, Lalor EC (2014). Endogenous auditory frequency-based attention modulates EEG-based measures of obligatory sensory activity in humans. NeuroReport, 25(4): 219 – 225. pdf
Newman DP, Wagner J, Loughnane GM, Kelly SP, O’Connell RG, Bellgrove MA (2018). Visuospatial attention bias is related to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptomology: A behavioural and electrophysiological analysis. (In prep).
Loughnane, GM, Meade, E, Reilly, RB, & Lalor, EC (2014). Towards a Gaze-Independent Hybrid-BCI based on SSVEPs, Alpha-Band Modulations and the P300. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Conference 2014. pdf
The O'Connell Lab 