Fiona McNab
Lecturer

Profile

Biography

Fiona McNab’s PhD involved studies of language processing using MEG at the Open University and Aston University. She then completed a short postdoc at Exeter University, investigating semantic processing with behavioural testing and fMRI. In 2005 she moved to Sweden for a second postdoc at the Karolinksa Institute in Stockholm. During this period she investigated working memory and attention, providing empirical support for a role for the basal ganglia in the control of access to working memory and identification of changes in the dopamine system related to working memory training. At The Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, UCL, with a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellowship, she designed the working memory game in the large-scale smartphone study; “The Great Brain Experiment”, leading to studies of different types of distraction in younger adults as well as in healthy ageing. In 2013 she moved to Birmingham University, where she conducted fMRI and behavioural studies of attention and working memory, and behavioural studies of the effects of competition on working memory. 

Fiona held a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellowship and an ESRC Seminar Series grant on “Cognitive intervention across the lifespan”.

Career

• BSc (Dual Hons), Psychology and Physics, Keele University, UK, 1997-2000
• PhD, The Open University / Aston University, UK, 2000-2004
• Postdoctoral researcher, Exeter University, UK, 2004-2005
• Postdoctoral researcher, Karolinska Institute, Sweden, 2005-2010
• Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellow, The Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, UCL / Birmingham University / York University, 2010 – 2017. 

Departmental roles

• Chair of the York NeuroImaging Centre Ethics Committee,
• Member of the Psychology Department Ethics Committee,
• Strand Leader for Perception and Cognition.

Research

Projects

• YORMEGA
• Working memory, distraction and healthy ageing
  Using fMRI and behavioural studies I am investigating what limits working memory, how different types of distractors are successfully ignored and how working memory changes with healthy aging, as well as in certain patient groups.

Grants

• Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellowship 2010 – 2017
• ESRC Seminar Series “Cognitive intervention across the lifespan”, 2015-2017

Collaborators

• Prof Ana Vivas (CITY College, University of York Europe Campus )
• Associate Professor Ted Zanto, University of California, San Francisco,
• Dr Joe Cutting, University of York
• Prof Sven Mattys, University of York
• Dr Emma Hayiou-Thomas, University of York

Publications

Selected publications

• Ashton, C., Gouws, A.D., Glennon, M., Das, A., Chen, Y-K., Chrisp, C., Felek, I., Zanto, T.P. & McNab, F. (2023) Stimulus specific cortical activity associated with ignoring distraction during working memory encoding and maintenance. Scientific Reports, 13, 8952. 
• Zhang, M, McNab, F, Smallwood, J. & Jefferies, B. (2022)  Perceptual coupling and decoupling are associated with individual differences in working memory encoding and maintenance. Cerebral Cortex, 32(18): 3959-3974
• McNab, F., Zeidman, P., Rutledge, R.B., Smittenaar, P., Brown, H.R., Adams, R.A. & Dolan, R.J. (2015) Age-related changes in working memory and the ability to ignore distraction. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112 (20): 6515-6518
• McNab, F. & Dolan, R.J. (2014) Dissociating distractor-filtering at encoding and during maintenance. Journal of Experimental Psycholgy: Human Perception and Performance, 40(3): 960-967 
• McNab, F., Varrone, A., Farde, L., Jucaite, A., Bystritska, P. Forssberg, H., & Klingberg, T. (2009) Changes in cortical D1 receptor binding associated with training-induced changes in working memory capacity. Science, 323, 800-802
• McNab, F. & Klingberg, T. (2008) Prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia control access to working memory. Nature Neuroscience, 11(1): 103-107.

Full publications list

See Google Scholar or the York Research Database.

Teaching

Undergraduate

• Perception and Cognition Year 1 core module in Cognition
• Perception and Cognition Year 1 core module in Memory 
• Perception and Cognition Year 2 (practical)
• Literature survey and project supervision

Postgraduate

• MSc Cognitive Neuroscience project supervision
• PhD supervision

External activities

Memberships

• British Association for Cognitive Neuroscience
• Cognitive Neuroscience Society