PAST: Monash Biomedical Imaging Webinar: Decoding experiences – Synaesthesia and beyond

Monash Biomedical Imaging welcomes Professor Anina N. Rich (ARC Future Fellow, Macquarie University Performance & Expertise Research Centre & School of Psychological Sciences) to present the online webinar Decoding experiences: Synaesthesia and beyond.

Abstract

In synaesthesia, an ordinary event evokes extraordinary experiences. For example, letters, digits and words may elicit colours, sounds can trigger perception of coloured objects or waves, seeing motion can evoke sounds, or seeing someone being touched might evoke a feeling of touch. I will present an magnetoencephalography (MEG) study and an electroencephalography (EEG) study in which we use multi-variate pattern analyses (‘decoding’) to explore these unusual experiences, opening up discussions about using neural measures to test and develop theories of how we perceive the world around us.

Biography

Professor Anina Rich completed her BSc(Hons) at Monash and M.Psych/PhD at the University of Melbourne before gaining a National Health & Medical Research Council postdoctoral fellowship to the Visual Attention Lab at Harvard Medical School. She returned to Australia in 2007 with a continuing position at Macquarie University, where her cognitive neuroscience lab focuses on attention and multisensory integration, funded by Australian Research Council grants and fellowships. Anina has received awards for her research and science communication, including the Paul Bourke Early Career researcher award, NSW Tall Poppy Award, selection by the Global Young Academy, and she is a current Fellow of the International Science Council.