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.
