Group leader
Professor Jason Mattingley
Research overview
The Mattingley lab investigates how the human brain selects, predicts, and decides, enabling efficient perception, cognition, and action in complex environments. The research focuses on the dynamic interaction between selective attention, predictive processing, and decision-making, and how these systems support behaviour in both health and disease.
One of the lab's central aims is to understand how the brain prioritises information. This includes studying how attention is directed toward relevant sensory inputs in the external environment, as well as toward internally generated thoughts.
The lab also examines how the brain uses predictive mechanisms to anticipate future events, rapidly adapting when expectations are confirmed or violated.
Research focus
A key focus is how the brain makes decisions under uncertainty, integrating incomplete or ambiguous information to guide behaviour. Uncovering the neural basis of these processes enables the understanding of how perception and cognition are optimised in everyday life.
The research extends to understanding how these systems are disrupted in neurological and neuropsychological conditions, including stroke, dementia, and attention deficit disorders. Using a combination of behavioural testing, neuroimaging and non-invasive brain stimulation, the lab links brain activity to cognitive function.
The group explores how cognitive training interventions can enhance attention and perception across the lifespan, contributing to improved outcomes in education, ageing, and clinical rehabilitation.
Latest news
- University of Queensland students have swapped a summer holiday at the beach for time in the lab as the annual UQ SEC Summer Research Program began at the Queensland Brain Institute.
- New research from The University of Queensland has shown for the first time that visual hallucinations in people with macular degeneration are associated with abnormally heightened activity in the visual cortex of the brain.
- Paying attention to a location helps the brain to process not just what you can see there, but also what you can’t – suggesting that attention and awareness are controlled by different pathways in the brain.