I started working at Middlesex in 2016. Before joining the department I held a senior lectureship at the University of Roehampton where I previously completed my PhD in 2011. My doctoral research investigated the role of a mirroring system in social cognition using EEG and I was supervised by Dr Joe Levy and Dr Amanda Holmes. I also spent a year as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania under the supervision of Dr. Richard Doty at The Smell and Taste Center.
BSc, PhD, PGcertHE
I teach and lead a number of modules in the undergraduate Psychology programmes offered by the Psychology department. My teaching expertise is cognitive and biological psychology and I particularly enjoy leading my final year optional module on methods in cognitive neuroscience.
I am the joint programme leader for the postgraduate programme - Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience. I lead and teach on a module in that programme aimed at providing postgraduate students authentic experience with cognitive neuroscience techniques.
I supervise post-graduate research students both in the MSc by Research in Cognitive Neuroscience and PhD students. Queries from potential PhD students are welcomed.
I also have an administrative and leadership role as the deputy director of programmes.
My research interests are in the field of cognitive neuroscience. My interests are varied but usually involved in understanding the interaction between neural mechanisms and cognitive processes involved in perception, cognition and social interactions. I have experience in using a variety of neuro-scientific methods including; EEG, TMS, tDCS and fMRI and I have an interest in these methods in and among themselves. I also have a specific interest in the biological and cognitive mechanisms involved in olfactory processing.
Selected publications:
Silas, J., & Brandt, K. R. (2016). Frontal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) abolishes list-method directed forgetting. Neuroscience Letters, 616, 166–169. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.neulet.2016.01.035
Doty, R. L., Nsoesie, M. T., Chung, I., Osman, A., Pawasarat, I., Caulfield, J., Hurtig, H., Silas, J., Dubroff, J. Duda, J., Ying, G-S., Tekeli, H. & Leon-Sarmiento, F. E. (2015). Taste function in early stage treated and untreated Parkinson’s disease. Journal of Neurology, 262(3), 547–57. http://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-014-7589-z
Doty, R. L., Koti, A., O’Hara, T. a, Landy, J., Shin, C., & Silas, J. (2014). Correlates of implicit cognitive line length representation in two-dimensional space. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 119(2), 550–63. http://doi.org/10.2466/24.PMS.119c23z1
Osman, A., & Silas, J. (2014). Electrophysiological Measurement of Olfactory Function. In R. L. Doty (Ed.), Handbook of Olfaction and Gustation (3rd ed., pp. 261–278). Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons Inc. (here)
Silas, J., Levy, J. P., & Holmes, A. (2012). Sensitivity of “mu” rhythm modulation to the relevance of an observed movement but not to goal congruency. International Journal of Psychophysiology : Official Journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology, 6–11. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2012.05.008
Silas, J. & Doty, R.L. (2010) Damm, M., & Vent, J. (2010). No evidence for specific benefit of acupuncture over vitamin B complex in reating persons with olfactory dysfunction. Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, 143(4), 603. doi: 10.1016/j.otohns.2010.07.008
Silas, J., Levy, J. P., Nielsen, M. K., Slade, L., & Holmes, A. (2010). Sex and individual differences in induced and evoked EEG measures of action observation. Neuropsychologia, 48(9), 2417–26. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.03.004
