Staff

Dr Alison Lane, BSc, MA, PhD

Personal web page

(email at a.r.lane@durham.ac.uk)

Biography

I completed my undergraduate degree, Masters degree and PhD all at Durham University, here in the Psychology department.  I then worked as a post-doctoral research associate on a project examining the neural mechanisms of visuo-spatial attention with Dr Ellison. Throughout these positions I began to specialise in the clinical neuropsychology of vision, which remains my main area of interest.

Research Interests

My main research interest is in clinical neuropsychology, specifially vision and spatial attention. I am involved in research examining compensatory interventions for people with visual field defects and I am mainly interested in the role which attention plays in such rehabilitation. As part of this work we have developed Durham Reading and Exploration (DREX) training which is a simple, computer-based training for the rehabilitation of hemianopia. More information can be found at:

www.dur.ac.uk/psychology/research/drex/

My additional research involves examining the neural mechanisms of visual attention, with focus on the roles of areas such as posterior parietal cortex and frontal eye fields. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) are the primary techniques that I employ in this area.

In the future I hope to be able to extend my research into the use of such neural stimulation techniques as tDCS in the clinical rehabilitation of people with visual or spatial impairments.

International Collaboration

• Dr Thomas Schenk

Research Groups

• Applied, Clinical and Health Psychology
• Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience

Research Interests

• Visual Field Defects
• Neurorehabilitation
• Visuospatial attention

Teaching Areas

• Yr 3 Psychology into Schools

• MSc Advanced Neuropsychology
• Yr 1 Classic Papers in Psychology
• Yr 2 Neuropsychology and Perceptual Processes
• Yr 3 Clinical Cognitive Neuroscience

Selected Publications

Journal papers: academic

• Lane, A.R., Ball, K., Smith, D.T. , Schenk, T & Ellison, A. (2013). Near and far space: understanding the neural mechanisms of spatial attention. Human Brain Mapping 34(2): 356-366.
• Hesse, C, Lane, AR, Aimola, L & Schenk, T (2012). Pathways involved in human conscious vision contribute to obstacle-avoidance behaviour. European Journal of Neuroscience 36(3): 2383-2390.
• Lane, A.R., Smith, D.T., Schenk, T. & Ellison, A. (2012). The involvement of posterior parietal cortex and frontal eye fields in spatially primed visual search. Brain Stimulation 5(1): 11-17.
• Ball, K., Lane, A., Ellison, A. & Schenk, T. (2011). Spatial priming in visual search: memory for body-centred information. Experimental Brain Research 212(3): 477-485.
• Lane, A.R., Smith, D.T., Schenk, T. & Ellison, A. (2011). The involvement of posterior parietal cortex in feature and conjunction visuomotor search. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 23(8): 1964-1972.
• Lane, A. R. , Smith, D. T., Ellison, A. & Schenk, T. (2010). Visual exploration training is no better than attention training for treating hemianopia. Brain 133(6): 1717-1728.
• Smith, D.T. , Lane, A.R. & Schenk, T. (2008). Arm position does not attenuate visual loss in patients with homonymous field deficits. Neuropsychologia 46(9): 2320-2325.
• Lane, A.R., Smith, D.T. & Schenk, T. (2008). Clinical treatment options for patients with homonymous visual field defects. Clinical Opthalmology 2(1): 93-102.
• Ellison, A., Lane, A.R. & Schenk, T. (2007). The interaction of brain regions during visual search processing as revealed by transcranial magnetic stimulation. Cerebral Cortex 17: 2579-2584.

Show all publications

Related Links

• Collaborator: Dr Amanda Ellison
• Collaborator: Dr Constanze Hesse
• Collaborator: Dr Dan Smith
• Collaborator: Dr Keira Ball

Media Contacts

Available for media contact about:

• Vision / eye movement: Rehabilitation of visual function
• Medical and health research topics:
• Neuroscience:
• Psychology:
• Vision / eye movement: