Neuroscience & Mental Health Research Institute

Dr Petroc Sumner

Based in perception and action and CUBRIC

Research Keywords

Decision, impulsivity, control, inhibition

Research Interests and Facilities

How do visual signals, even ones that we do not consciously perceive, trigger actions? How do we control our behaviour so that we do not reflexively respond when we don’t want to? Why do people differ from each other in these basic mechanisms?
Control of basic behaviour can be disrupted by brain damage or degeneration or in mental disorders, and lapses occur often in all of us. Our research aims to help us understand the exact reasons why.

We use a range of methods with both healthy volunteers and patients, integrating precise behavioural measures (including eye tracking) with imaging (fMRI and MEG) and spectroscopy.

Available PhD Projects

1. Stratifying psychiatric disorders with cognition, perception and imaging analysis
   For other research projects, please see Dr Sumner’s main research page.

Publications

1. Boy, F., Evans, C. J., Edden, R. A. E., Lawrence, A., Husain, M., Singh K. D. & Sumner, P. (2011) Dorso-lateral pre-frontal GABA levels predict rash impulsivity measures. Biol. Psychiatry, 70, 866-872.
2. Bompas, A. and Sumner, P. (2011).  Saccadic inhibition reveals the timing of automatic and voluntary signals in the human brain . Journal of Neuroscience, 31(35): 12501-12512.
3. Sumner, P. Edden, RAE. Bompas, A. Evans, CJ and Singh, K.D. (2010) More GABA, less distraction: A neurochemical predictor of motor decision speed. Nature Neuroscience, 13, 825-827. 
4. Boy, F. Husain, M. and Sumner, P. (2010) Unconscious inhibition separates two forms of cognitive control. PNAS, 107, 11134–11139.
5. Boy, F., Evans, J., Edden, R. A. E., Husain, M., Singh K. D, Husain, M. & Sumner, P. (2010) Individual differences in subconscious motor control predicted by GABA concentration in SMA. Current Biology 20, 1779–1785.