Siobhán’s PhD research focuses on interrogating the integrity of performance-monitoring capacities in the ageing population. Performance-monitoring is a major executive function which facilitates an online adaptation of behaviour in accordance with internal goals. While young healthy adults are typically very good at detecting their performance errors and adjusting their behaviour accordingly, a diminished capacity to recognise errors is a common feature of many clinical populations and can significantly limit the capacity for autonomous living.
Siobhán’s research program involves a series of studies tailored to investigate: 1) whether older adults demonstrate a diminished capacity to monitor their performance errors relative to young adults; and 2) the potential for transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to modulate the functioning of the neural systems underlying performance-monitoring, as assessed by a range of behavioural and neurophysiological measures.
The O'Connell Lab 