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Psychology at Trinity

Trinity College Dublin
Shane O'Mara

Event-Related Potentials recorded in the human brain reveal electrophysiological correlates of sensory, motor and cognitive events. This waveform is evoked by visual processing in the visual cortex. The colour plots represent the flow of electrical activity across the whole brain during a visual task.

The Psychology Department is a rapidly developing and research-active Department, with a strong commitment to excellence in teaching, training and research apprenticeship at graduate and undergraduate levels. It has three main research strengths - Neuroscience and Cognition; Health, Clinical and Counselling; and Culture, Systems and Development. Members of the Department receive significant research funding from the Wellcome Trust, the Health Research Board, the EU and many other sources. Research income to members of staff over the last three years has exceeded £2 million.

Theory meets practice

A particular strength of TCD Psychology is the way in which basic and applied science are combined to foster major advances in theoretical understanding of the human mind and brain, as well as tangible practical benefits in many different areas of life. For instance, we study the effects of poverty, deprivation and drug addiction on children; we study the causes of human error - advising road engineers and airlines on how to reduce fatal accidents. We are a leading international centre in the study of how the human mind logically (or illogically) reasons, and also in the errors and pitfalls it falls into when making deductions. We are a leading centre in the study of how the brain makes and breaks connections, and the effects of stress on the brain. We study basic mechanisms in how the normal and damaged brain functions, as well as developing methods for helping the brain repair itself after damage or disease. How health and sickness express themselves in different cultures is another area of influential research.

Excellent facilities

With our state-of-the-art student computer labs and multi-media facilities, we are excellently equipped for teaching and research. With EEG labs, behavioural neuroscience labs, video-observation suites and excellent contacts with hospitals and medical services, we are very well prepared for offering the very best training to undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Culture, Systems & Development Research Stream

This Stream focuses on how people act and behave in their cultural, social and techno-logical context; understands the interactions of people in their organisations and communities in terms of complex functional systems; analyses change and development, at both personal and organisational levels.

Health, Clinical & Counselling Research Stream

We have a number of different areas of research interest: these include culture & health, phantom limb phenomena, inter-national development, psychobiology of addiction, cognitive decline in the elderly, medical reasoning.

Neuroscience & Cognition Research Stream

This Stream is concerned with the exploration of the neural and cognitive bases of mind and behaviour. It is organised into a series of research groups concerned with: Cognitive Science; Behavioural Neuroscience; Neuropsychology and Neurorehabilitation; Visual and Haptic Perception.

Contact: Tel: 01-608-1886;
Web: http://www.tcd.ie/Psychology/