Publications

2020

London, RE., Benwell, CSY., Cecere, R., Quak, M., Thut, G., & Talsma, D. (2020). EEG Alpha Power Predicts the Temporal Sensitivity of Multisensory Integration. bioRxiv.

Learmonth, G., Benwell, CSY., Märker, G., Dascalu, D., Checketts, M., Santosh, C., … & Harvey, M. (2020). Non-invasive brain stimulation in Stroke patients (NIBS): A prospective randomized open blinded end-point (PROBE) feasibility trial using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in post-stroke hemispatial neglect. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation.

Benwell CSY., Davila-Perez P., Fried PJ., Jones RN., Travison TG., Santarnecchi E., Pascual-Leone A., & Shafi, M. (2020). EEG spectral power abnormalities and their relationship with cognitive dysfunction in patients with Alzheimer’s disease and Type 2 Diabetes. Neurobiology of Aging.

2019

Benwell CSY., Beyer R., Wallington F., & Ince, RAA. (2019). History biases reveal novel dissociations between perceptual and metacognitive decision-making. bioRxiv. 

Tagliabue CF., Veniero D., Benwell CSY., Cecere R., Savazzi S., & Thut, G. (2019). The EEG signature of sensory evidence accumulation during decision formation closely tracks subjective perceptual experience. Scientific Reports, 9(1), 4949.

Benwell CSY., London RE., Tagliabue CF., Veniero D., Gross J., Keitel C. & Thut G. (2019). Frequency and power of human alpha oscillations drift systematically with time-on-task. Neuroimage. 192:101-114.

Significance: We revealed two endogenous non-stationary processes in neural alpha-band activity, a decrease in frequency and increase in power over 1-hour of psychophysical task performance. These findings inform signal processing techniques and advance understanding of functionally relevant neural activity.

Keitel C., Keitel A., Benwell CSY., Daube C., Thut G., & Gross J. (2019). Stimulus-driven brain rhythms within the alpha band: The attentional-modulation conundrum. Journal of Neuroscience. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1633-18.2019

2018

Keitel C., Benwell CSY., Thut G. & Gross J. (2018). No changes in parieto-occipital alpha during neural phase locking to visual quasi-periodic theta-, alpha-, and beta-band stimulation. European Journal of Neuroscience. 

Benwell CSY., Harvey M., Gross J. & Thut G. (2018). Trial-by-trial co-variation of pre-stimulus EEG alpha power and visuospatial bias reflects a mixture of stochastic and deterministic effects. European Journal of Neuroscience.

Significance: We employed a novel jackknife approach linking single‐trial variability in oscillatory activity to visuospatial performance, showing that both short- and long‐term alpha-band changes influence spatial bias. This provides fundamental insight into the nature of effects of neural oscillations on perception.

2017

Benwell CSY., Tagliabue C., Veniero D., Cecere R., Savazzi S. & Thut G. (2017). Prestimulus EEG power predicts conscious awareness but not objective visual performance. eNeuro. 4(6). ENEURO.0182-17.2017.

Significance: We investigated the influence of both the power and phase of neural oscillations on visual perception, showing that prestimulus oscillatory power (∼3–28 Hz) predicts subjective but not objective measures of visual performance, whilst prestimulus phase predicts neither.

Learmonth G., Felisatti F., Siriwardena N., Checketts M., Benwell CSY., Märker G., Thut G. & Harvey M. (2017). No interaction between tDCS current strength and baseline performance: A conceptual replication. Frontiers in Neuroscience. 11:664.

Veniero D., Benwell CSY., Ahrens M-M. & Thut G. (2017). Inconsistent effects of parietal α-tACS on pseudoneglect across two experiments: a failed internal replication. Frontiers in Psychology. 8:952.

Significance: This failed attempt to internally replicate an effect of 10Hz transcranial alternating current stimulation (α-tACS) on visuospatial attention strongly highlights the importance of improved scientific practices (including direct replication) for establishing the robustness of transcranial electrical stimulation effects.

Santarnecchi E., Khanna AJ., Musaeus CS., Benwell CSY., Davila-Pérez P., Farzan F., Pascual-Leone A. & Shafi M. (2017). EEG microstate correlates of fluid intelligence and response to cognitive training. Brain Topography. 30(4):502-520.

Significance: We demonstrated that spatiotemporal dynamics of EEG microstate activity correlate with baseline measures of fluid intelligence and with its modulation by cognitive training. This finding offers new insight about the link between human intelligence and spontaneous EEG activity.

Learmonth G., Benwell CSY., Thut G. & Harvey M. (2017). Age-related reduction of hemispheric lateralisation for spatial attention: An EEG study. NeuroImage. 153:139-151.

Significance: We mapped the EEG correlates of our previously observed age-related rightward shift in visuospatial bias. We replicated the reduction in pseudoneglect which was concurrent with a reduced right hemisphere specialisation for visuospatial processing in elderly relative to young adults.

Rossit S., Benwell CSY., Szymanek L., Learmonth G., McKernan-Ward L., Corrigan E., Muir K., Reeves I., Duncan G., Birschel P., et al. (2017). Efficacy of home-based visuomotor feedback training in stroke patients with chronic hemispatial neglect. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation. doi: 10.1080/09602011.2016.1273119

Significance: This stroke rehabilitation trial aimed at improving visual attention in patients with hemispatial neglect through visuomotor feedback training (VFT). A simple two-week VFT-intervention reduced neglect symptoms and improved quality of life indicators, and these improvements were maintained 4 months later.

2015

Benwell CSY., Learmonth G., Miniussi C., Harvey M. & Thut G. (2015). Non-linear effects of transcranial direct current stimulation as a function of individual baseline performance: Evidence from biparietal tDCS influence on lateralized attention bias. Cortex. 69:152-165.

Significance: We showed that the effect of bi-parietal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on lateralised visuospatial attention depends on both the baseline task performance level of participants and the administered tDCS-intensity, thus highlighting the state-dependency of tDCS outcome.

Learmonth G., Thut G., Benwell CSY. & Harvey M. (2015). The implications of state-dependent tDCS effects in aging: Behavioural response is determined by baseline performance. Neuropsychologia. 74:108-119.

2014

Benwell CSY., Thut G., Grant A. & Harvey M. (2014). A rightward shift in the visuospatial attention vector with age. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience. 6:113.

Significance: The results showed that healthy aging ameliorates the typical leftward attention bias found in young participants, with a reduced or even reversed bias present in elderly participants. This finding helped refine models of visual attention networks in health and disease.

Benwell CSY., Harvey M. & Thut G. (2014). On the neural origin of pseudoneglect: EEG-correlates of shifts in line bisection performance with manipulation of line length. NeuroImage. 86:370-380.

Significance: Healthy individuals tend to exhibit bias toward the left visual-field (pseudoneglect). Using EEG, we mapped the locus of the bias to right-hemisphere activity at early processing stages, thereby contributing important insight into the functional architecture of the visuospatial attention system.

2013

Benwell CSY., Thut G., Learmonth G. & Harvey M. (2013). Spatial attention: Differential shifts in pseudoneglect direction with time-on-task and initial bias support the idea of observer subtypes. Neuropsychologia. 51(13):2747-2756.

Benwell CSY., Harvey M., Gardner S. & Thut G. (2013). Stimulus- and state-dependence of systematic bias in spatial attention: Additive effects of stimulus-size and time-on-task. Cortex. 49(3):827-836.