Professor Amanda Ellison, Ph.D, BAmod Physiology

Personal web page

(email at amanda.ellison@durham.ac.uk)

Research Interests

My interests include the neuroscientific basis of vision; neuronal disruption in migraine headache; visuomotor systems; sensorimotor cortical interfacing; thalamocortical dysrhythmia and the rehabilitative benefits of TMS.

Research Groups

Department of Psychology

• Cognitive Neuroscience

Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing

• Pain Special Interest Group

Indicators of Esteem

• 2018: PhD Examination: External examiner for PhD: University College London
• 2017: International Lecture:

  University of Natural resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria.

  Law, Technology and Society Lecture Series.

  Invited Lecture "The use of interdisciplinarity in solving societal problems"

• 2017: PhD Examination: External examiner for PhD: Birmingham City University
• 2016: PhD Examination: External examiner for PhD: University of Helsinki
• 2016: PhD Examination: External examiner for PhD: University of Glasgow
• 2015: PhD Examination: External examiner for PhD: NIH
• 2014: PhD Examination: External examiner for PhD: University College London
• 2014: Trustee of Animal Free Research UK: Animal Free Research UK is a charity which was founded in 1970 and is the UK’s leading non-animal medical research charity that funds and promotes the development of techniques and procedures to replace the use of animals in biomedical research.
• 2011: PhD Examination: External examiner for PhD: University College London

Selected Publications

Authored book

• Ellison, Amanda (2020). Splitting; The Inside Story on Headaches. Bloomsbury, Green Tree.
• Ellison, Amanda (2012). Getting your Head around the Brain. Palgrave Macmillan.

Book review

• Ellison, Amanda (2006). Itti et al, the Neurobiology of Attention. A Review. Perception (35): 859-860.

Chapter in book

• Ellison, Amanda, Dunne, Stephen & Lane, Alison R. (2020). Real-world applications in vision and attention: How to help patients find their (golf) balls again. In Real-World Applications in Cognitive Neuroscience. Parkin, Beth Louise Elsevier. 253: 169-200.
• Matthew Rushworth & Amanda Ellison. (2005). Spatial representations and attentional systems for action in the parietal cortex. In Attention in Action; Advances from Cognitive Neuroscience. Humphreys, G.W. & Riddoch, M.J. Psychology Press. 233-262.
• Amanda Ellison, Lauren Stewart, Vincent Walsh & Alan Cowey (2003). Magnetic stimulation in studies of vision and attention. In The Neuropsychology of Vision. Fahle, M. & Greenlee, M. Oxford University Press. 163-178.

Journal Article

• Dunne, Stephen, Close, Helen, Richards, Nicola, Ellison, Amanda & Lane, Alison R (2020). Maximising Telerehabilitation for Patients with Visual Loss After Stroke: Interview and Focus Group Study with Stroke Survivors, Carers, and Occupational Therapists. Journal of Medical Internet Research 22(10): e19604.
• Knight, Helen C., Smith, Daniel T. & Ellison, Amanda (2020). The Role of the Left Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex in Attentional Bias. Neuropsychologia 148: 107631.
• Dunne, S, Ellison, A & Smith D.T. (2019). The Limitations of Reward Effects on Saccade Latencies: An Exploration of Task-Specificity and Strength. Vision 3(2): 20.
• Moseley, P., Mitrenga, K., Ellison, A. & Fernyhough, C. (2018). Investigating the roles of medial prefrontal and superior temporal cortex in source monitoring. Neuropsychologia 120: 113-123.
• Knight, Helen C., Smith, Daniel T., Knight, David C. & Ellison, Amanda (2018). Light social drinkers are more distracted by irrelevant information from an induced attentional bias than heavy social drinkers. Psychopharmacology 235(10): 2967-2978.
• Todd, Adam, Akhter, Nasima, Cairns, Joanne-Marie, Kasim, Adetayo, Walton, Nick, Ellison, Amanda, Chazot, Paul, Eldabe, Sam & Bambra, Clare (2018). The Pain Divide: a cross-sectional analysis of chronic pain prevalence, pain intensity and opioid utilisation in England. BMJ Open 8(7): e023391.
• Ball, Keira, Birch, Yan, Lane, Alison, Ellison, Amanda & Schenk, Thomas (2017). Comparing the effect of temporal delay on the availability of egocentric and allocentric information in visual search. Behavioural Brain Research 331: 38-46.
• Ellison, Amanda, Ball, Keira L. & Lane, Alison R. (2017). The Behavioral Effects of tDCS on Visual Search Performance Are Not Influenced by the Location of the Reference Electrode. Frontiers in Neuroscience 11: 520.
• Knight, H.C., Smith, D.T., Knight, D.C. & Ellison, A. (2016). Altering attentional control settings causes persistent biases of visual attention. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 69(1): 129-149.
• Moseley, Peter, Alderson-Day, Ben, Ellison, Amanda, Jardri, Renaud & Fernyhough, Charles (2016). Non-invasive Brain Stimulation and Auditory Verbal Hallucinations: New Techniques and Future Directions. Frontiers in Neuroscience 9: 515.
• Moseley, P., Smailes, D., Ellison, A. & Fernyhough, C. (2016). The effect of auditory verbal imagery on signal detection in hallucination-prone individuals. Cognition 146: 206-216.
• Lane, Alison R., Ball, Keira & Ellison, Amanda (2015). Dissociating the neural mechanisms of distance and spatial reference frames. Neuropsychologia 74: 42-49.
• Dunne, S., Ellison, A. & Smith, D.T. (2015). Rewards modulate saccade latency but not exogenous spatial attention. Frontiers in Psychology 6: 1080.
• Smith, D.T., Ball, K. & Ellison, A. (2014). Covert visual search within and beyond the effective oculomotor range. Vision Research 95: 11-17.
• Ellison, A., Ball, K.L., Moseley, P., Dowsett, J., Smith, D.T., Weis, S. & Lane, A.R. (2014). Functional Interaction between Right Parietal and Bilateral Frontal Cortices during Visual Search Tasks Revealed Using Functional Magnetic Imaging and Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation. PLoS ONE 9(4): e93767.
• Moseley, P., Fernyhough, C. & Ellison, A. (2014). The role of the superior temporal lobe in auditory false perceptions: A transcranial direct current stimulation study. Neuropsychologia 62: 202-208.
• Moseley, P., Fernyhough, C. & Ellison, A. (2013). Auditory verbal hallucinations as atypical inner speech monitoring, and the potential of neurostimulation as a treatment option. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 37(10): 2794-2805.
• Cowey, A., Alexander, I. & Ellison, A. (2013). Modulation of cortical excitability can speed up blindsight but not improve it. Experimental Brain Research 224(3): 469-475.
• 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.
• Ball, K., Lane, A. R., Smith, D. T. & Ellison, A. (2013). Site-Dependent Effects of tDCS Uncover Dissociations in the Communication Network Underlying the Processing of Visual Search. Brain Stimulation 6(6): 959-965.
• Alba-Ferrara, LM, Ellison, A & Mitchell, RLC (2012). Decoding emotional prosody: Resolving differences in functional neuroanatomy from fMRI & lesion studies using TMS. Brain Stimulation 5(3): 347-353.
• Smith, DT, Ball, K & Ellison, A (2012). Inhibition of Return impairs phosphene detection. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 24(11): 2262-2267.
• 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.
• Dzhelyova, M.P., Ellison, A. & Atkinson, A.P. (2011). Event-related repetitive TMS reveals distinct, critical roles for right OFA and bilateral posterior STS in judging the sex and trustworthiness of faces. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 23(10): 2782-2796.
• 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.
• Hirnstein, M., Bayer, U., Ellison, A. & Hausmann, M. (2011). TMS over the left angular gyrus impairs the ability to discriminate left from right. Neuropsychologia 49(1): 29-33.
• Ball, K., Smith, D., Ellison, A. & Schenk, T. (2010). A body-centred frame of reference drives spatial priming in visual search. Experimental Brain Research 204(4): 585-594.
• Smith, D.T., Ball, K., Ellison, A. & Schenk, T. (2010). Deficits of reflexive attention induced by abduction of the eye. Neuropsychologia 48(5): 1269-1276.
• 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.
• Ball, K., Smith, D., Ellison, A. & Schenk, T (2009). Both egocentric and allocentric cues support spatial priming in visual search. Neuropsychologia 47(6): 1585-1591.
• Ellison, A. & Cowey, A. (2009). Differential and co-involvement of areas of the temporal and parietal streams in visual tasks. Neuropsychologia 47(6): 1609-1614.
• Ellison, A (2008). Are results from different techniques mutually exclusive in the study of how the brain processes visual search?. Cortex 44(1): 99-101.
• Schindler, I., Ellison, A. & Milner, A.D. (2008). Contralateral visual search deficits following TMS. Journal of Neuropsychology 2(2): 501-508.
• 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(11): 2579-2584.
• Ellison, A. & Cowey, A. (2007). Time course of the involvement of the ventral and dorsal visual processing streams in a visuospatial task. Neuropsychologia 45(14): 3335-3339.
• Whitney, D., Ellison, A., Rice, N.J., Arnold, D., Goodale, M., Walsh, V. & Milner, A.D. (2007). Visually Guided Reaching Depends on Motion Area MT+. Cerebral Cortex 17(11): 2644-2649.
• Ellison, A. & Cowey, A. (2006). TMS can reveal contrasting functions of the dorsal and ventral visual processing streams. Experimental Brain Research 175(4): 618-625.
• Schenk, T., Ellison, A., Rice, N.J. & Milner, A.D. (2005). The role of V5/MT+ in the control of catching movements: an rTMS study. Neuropsychologia 43(2): 189-198.
• Ellison, A., Schindler, I., Pattison, L. L. & Milner, A. D. (2004). An exploration of the role of the superior temporal gyrus in visual search and spatial perception using TMS. Brain 127(10): 2307-2315.
• Lavidor, M., Ellison, A. & Walsh, V. (2003). The cortical representation of centrally presented words: a magnetic stimulation study. Visual Cognition 10(3): 341-362.
• Ellison, A., Battelli, L., Walsh, V. & Cowey, A. (2003). The effect of expectation on facilitation of colour/form conjunction tasks by TMS over area V5. Neuropsychologia 41(13): 1794-1801.
• Ellison, A., Rushworth, M.F.S. & Walsh, V. (2003). The parietal cortex in visual search: a visuomotor hypothesis. Clinical Neurophysiology 56: 321-330.
• Rushworth, M.F.S., Ellison, A. & Walsh, V. (2001). Complementary localization and lateralization of orienting and motor attention. Nature Neuroscience 4(6): 656-661.
• Stewart, L., Ellison, A., Walsh, V. & Cowey, A. (2001). The role of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in studies of vision, attention and cognition. Acta Psychologica 107(1-3): 275-291.
• Ellison, A. & Walsh, V. (2001). Visual Field asymmetries in attention and learning. Spatial Vision 14(1): 3-9.
• Ellison, A. & Walsh, V. (1998). Perceptual Learning in visual search: some evidence of specificities. Vision Research 38(3): 333-345.
• Walsh, V., Ellison, A., Battelli, L. & Cowey, A. (1998). Task-specific impairments and enhancements induced by magnetic stimulation of human visual area V5. Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences 265(1395): 537-543.
• Walsh, V., Ellison, A., Ashbridge, E. & Cowey, A. (1998). The role of the parietal cortex in visual attention - hemispheric asymmetires and the effects of learning: A magnetic stimulation study. Neuropsychologia 37(2): 245-251.

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Media Contacts

Available for media contact about:

• Dreams and sleep: the biological basis of behaviour; physiology and behaviour; brain and behaviour
• Neuroscience: the biological basis of behaviour; physiology and behaviour; brain and behaviour
• Drink & drugs: the biological basis of behaviour; physiology and behaviour; brain and behaviour
• Human biology and development: the biological basis of behaviour; physiology and behaviour; brain and behaviour
• Medical and health research topics: the biological basis of behaviour; physiology and behaviour; brain and behaviour
• Memory and brain function: the biological basis of behaviour; physiology and behaviour; brain and behaviour
• Perception / attractiveness: the biological basis of behaviour; physiology and behaviour; brain and behaviour
• Stress: the biological basis of behaviour; physiology and behaviour; brain and behaviour
• Vision / eye movement: the biological basis of behaviour; physiology and behaviour; brain and behaviour

Supervises

• Dr Keira Ball

Selected Grants