Psychology Research Group staff
Dr Naira Taroyan
PhD Cognitive Neuroscience, PhD Psychophysiology, MSc
Phone 0114 225 5814
E-mail n.a.taroyan@shu.ac.uk
I joined Sheffield Hallam University in September 2007. Previously I have studied and worked in various research laboratories and universities with the main focus in the area of cognitive neuroscience, perception and developmental psychology.
I am interested in how human brain processes sensory (visual/auditory) information, as well as in higher level cognitive functions and underlying neurophysiological mechanisms both in norm and impairment. One main area of interest is human stereovision and motion perception, particularly neurophysiological correlates and underlying brain mechanisms involved.
I have gained an extensive experience in visual psychophysics while working in the Vision team at Sheffield University with Professor John Frisby. Another area of long-term interest is visual-spatial attention and its changes with age, in healthy and impaired ageing.
The recent work in dyslexia included testing various cognitive and perceptual mechanisms, such as continuous performance task, motion detection, stereo perception, lexical decision task. The combination of behavioural and neurophysiological techniques greatly enhances our understanding of underlying brain mechanisms in various perceptual and cognitive functions, and often can be an early and sensitive marker of an impairment onset.
Research interests
Behavioural and neurophysiological aspects of
- visual perception, stereopsis, motion detection
- developmental learning disorders - dyslexia, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism
- attention and reading
- healthy and impaired ageing
- lateralised and symmetrical brain function
Research collaborations
Currently we collaborate with Professor Rod Nicolson at Sheffield University who is an imminent scientist in the field of dyslexia. Our project is concerned with phonological and semantic processing in dyslexia. We are particularly interested in early brain activation, as shown by electroencephalogram (EEG) and event related potentials (ERPs) techniques. These electrophysiological non-invasive methods have excellent temporal resolution and inform us of sequence of processes triggered by various stimuli with 1 ms precision.
Publications
Taroyan, N.A., Nicolson, R.I. and Buckley, D. (in revision) Neurophysiological and behavioural correlates of coherent motion perception in Dyslexia.
Porrill, J., Duke, P.A., Taroyan, N.A., Frisby, J.P. and Buckley, D. (2010). The accuracy of metric judgements: Perception of surface normal. Vision Research. 50. 1140-1157.
Taroyan, N.A. and Nicolson, R.I. (2009) Reading words and pseudowords Dyslexia: ERP and behavioural tests in English speaking adolescents. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 74, 199-208.
Taroyan, N.A., Nicolson, R.I., and Fawcett, A.J. (2007) Behavioural and neurophysiological correlates of dyslexia in the continuous performance task. Clinical Neurophysiology,118(4), 845-55.
Taroyan, N,A., Thiyagesh, S., Frisby, J.P., Buckley, D., Woodruff, P.W.R., Young, C., Vigon, L., and Saatchi, R. (2004) The effects of ageing on stereopsis. A VEP study. Documenta Ophthalmologica, 108, 185-196.
Vigon, L., Saatchi, R., Mayhew, J.E.W., Taroyan, N.A., and Frisby, J.P. (2002) The effect of signal length on the performance of independent component analysis for extracting the lambda wave. Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing (MBEC), 40(2), 260-268.
Research and consultancy projects
Behavioural and electrophysiological correlates of dyslexia before and after training exercise program. Research project with the Dyslexia, Dyspraxia and Attention Deficit Treatment Centre (DDAT).
Conference proceedings
Taroyan, N.A., Nicolson R, Buckley, D. Is motion perception impaired in dyslexia? ERP evidence. Neuroimaging conference - What do we want to see in Brain imaging. London, UCL, 3-4 December, 2007.
Taroyan, N.A. and Nicolson R.I. Behavioural and ERP correlates of lexical decision task in English speaking dyslexic adolescents. British Association of Cognitive Neuroscience, 29-31 August, 2007.
Taroyan, N.A., Nicolson R.I., Fawcett, A.J., and Buckley, D. CPT and coherent motion ERPs are impaired in dyslexia.12th Annual Meeting Human Brain Mapping, June11-15, 2006, Florence, Italy.
Taroyan, N.A., Nicolson R., and Fawcett, A. Event Related Potentials and Continuous Performance Task in Dyslexia. Postgraduate conference, Psychology, Sheffield University, May 2005.
Taroyan, N.A., Thiyagesh S., Frisby, J.P., Buckley, D., Woodruff, P.W.R., Young, C., Vigon, L., and Saatchi, R. (2002) Assessment of stereopsis in early stages of Alzheimer's disease. Perception Supplement, 31, 31c. (European Conference on Visual Perception (ECVP), Glasgow, UK, 2002).
