I am a research scientist based at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience in London, where I work as part of the Cognitive Neurology group.
MY RESEARCH
I am interested in how our brains make sense of the information arriving from our sensory organs (such as the eyes, ears, and skin), and how this sensory information is used to select and plan our actions. To investigate these processes, I conduct tests of perception, memory, and motor control on healthy volunteers. I also carry out experiments with people whose normal brain function has been disrupted by a stroke or other brain injury.
My current research focuses on eye movements and visual memory. Our ability to remember what we have seen is surprisingly limited: I investigate how this limited resource of visual memory is shared out between features of the visual scene and how it is updated when we move our eyes (you can read more about this research here). We make eye movements almost constantly in order to extract as much information as possible from the world around us: my research seeks to understand the processes that decide where and in what order these eye movements are directed.
My PhD was based in Daniel Wolpert’s lab, where I investigated how the brain predicts the consequences of our actions. The sensation of a touch is weakened when it is self-generated (think of the difference between attempting to tickle yourself and being tickled by someone else). I showed that this is the result of an active process, in which the brain predicts and removes sensory signals that are the consequence of one's own actions. I also investigated how the brain uses prediction to adapt to changes to the body (for example, carrying a heavy object) that alter the outcome of our intended movements.
MY PUBLICATIONS
Response to comment on "Dynamic shifts of limited working memory resources in human vision" [pdf]
Bays PM & Husain M (2009)
Science 323: 877
Dynamic shifts of limited working memory resources in human vision [pdf]
Bays PM & Husain M (2008)
Science 321: 851-854
Eye movements as a probe of attention [pdf]
Hoang Duc A, Bays PM & Husain M (2008)
Progress in Brain Research 171: 403-411
Spatial remapping of the visual world across saccades [pdf]
Bays PM & Husain M (2007)
Neuroreport 18(12): 1207-1213
Predictive attenuation in the perception of touch [pdf]
Bays PM & Wolpert DM (2007)
Attention & Performance XXII: Sensorimotor Foundations of Higher Cognition
Oxford University Press (Eds: P. Haggard, Y. Rosetti, M. Kawato)
Simultaneous bimanual dynamics are learned without interference [pdf]
Tcheang L, Bays PM, Ingram JN & Wolpert DM (2007)
Experimental Brain Research 183(1): 17-25
An improvement in perception of self-generated tactile stimuli following theta-burst stimulation of primary motor cortex [pdf]
Voss M, Bays PM, Rothwell JC & Wolpert DM (2007)
Neuropsychologia 45(12): 2712-2717
Computational principles of sensorimotor control that minimise uncertainty and
variability [pdf]
Bays PM & Wolpert DM (2007)
Journal of Physiology 578(2): 387–396
Actions and consequences in bimanual interaction are represented in different coordinate systems [pdf]
Bays PM & Wolpert DM (2006)
Journal of Neuroscience 26(26): 7121-7126
Attenuation of self-generated tactile sensations is predictive, not postdictive [pdf]
Bays PM, Flanagan JR & Wolpert DM (2006)
Public Library of Science: Biology 4(2): e28
Evidence for sensory prediction deficits in schizophrenia [pdf]
Shergill SS, Samson G, Bays PM, Frith CD & Wolpert DM (2005)
American Journal of Psychiatry 162: 2384-2386
Perception of the consequences of self-action is temporally tuned and event driven [pdf]
Bays PM, Wolpert DM & Flanagan JR (2005)
Current Biology 15: 1125-1128
Interference between velocity- and position-dependent force-fields indicates that tasks depending on different kinematic parameters compete for motor working memory [pdf]
Bays PM, Flanagan JR & Wolpert DM (2005)
Experimental Brain Research 163: 400-405
Failure to consolidate the consolidation theory of learning for sensorimotor
adaptation tasks [pdf]
Caithness G, Osu R, Bays PM, Chase H, Klassen J, Kawato M, Wolpert DM & Flanagan JR (2004)
Journal of Neuroscience 24(40): 8662-8671
Two eyes for an eye: The neuroscience of force escalation [pdf]
Shergill SS, Bays PM, Frith CD & Wolpert DM (2003)
Science 301: 187
CONTACT ME
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p.bays@ion.ucl.ac.uk |
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Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience |
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+44 (0)20 7679 5434 |
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+44 (0)20 7916 8517 |